Don Singleton: 2009

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Happy Hippo Education Centre

Happy Hippo Education Centre is a building school in the virtual world of Second Life. I teach at Happy Hippo, and recently persuaded the owner of the school to allow me to put up a Website, which will have static information about the school, a Blog, where teachers will post blog entries about upcoming classes, and students can comment, and a Forum, where students can pose questions that teachers or other students can answer. To try to reach the younger crowd, we also have a Facebook Page, and Twitter Account

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Who will guarantee it?

FOXNews reported Netanyahu said "In any peace agreement, the territory under Palestinian control must be disarmed, with solid security guarantees for Israel," he said.

And who is going to guarantee they disarm and remain disarmed? The same UN that was supposed to prevent Hezbolah from rearming in Lebanon?

"If we get this guarantee for demilitarization and necessary security arrangements for Israel, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people,

Or when Hell freezes over

we will be willing in a real peace agreement to reach a solution of a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state," he said.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Oklahoma did pretty good

According to WSJ Oklahoma was sixth in states with an increase in GDP with 2.7%, beeten only by North Dakota with 7.3%, Wyoming with 4.4%, South Dakota with 3.5%, District of Columbia with 3.0% (all of those extra government jobs our children and grandchildren will be paying for), and Colorado with 2.9%. We were fourth in job GAINS 1.2%, beaten only by Wyoming with 3.1%, North Dakota with 1.7%, and Alaska with 1.5%. Our Housing Prices fell 1.7% compared to Nevada's drop of 28.2%, California's drop of 25.5, Florida's drop of 24.0%, and Arizona's drop of 20.6%. Eleven states did better than Oklahoma. Kansas, Kentucky, New Mexico, Iowa, and West Virginia had smaller losses in Housing Prices, and South Dakota, Hawaii, Texas, Alaska, Wyoming, and North Dakota even saw an increase in Housing Prices (North Dakota was highest at 1.9%).

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Says he didn't do it

NYTimes reported Suspect in Hijacking of U.S. Ship off Somalia Denies Federal Charges

There were four hijackers. The navy shot three, and the fourth says he didn't do it. Who are you going to believe? How did he get on the boat?

.... Idd Beddel Mohamed, the deputy permanent representative to the Somali Mission to the United Nations, who attended the hearing, said “Over all, we have full confidence in the American legal system,

Where guilty people get off all the time

and I think in due course justice will be served on both sides.”

ROF, LMAO

He said that his government had confidence in the defense lawyers and sympathized with the hostages’ families. Prosecutors say Mr. Muse is over 18. His lawyers and father say that he is as young as 15, and should be treated as a juvenile.

A juvenile that hijacked a ship and threatened to kill the Captain.

For now, he is being treated as an adult.

“He’s confused. He’s terrified,” another lawyer, Deirdre von Dornum, said. “As you can imagine, he’s a boy who fishes,

That was not a fishing pole he carried.

and now he’s ended up in solitary confinement here.” She added, “He’s having a very difficult time.”

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Soda Tax

WSJ.com reported Senate leaders are considering new federal taxes on soda and other sugary drinks to help pay for an overhaul of the nation's health-care system.

They just raised taxes on cigarettes to pay for health insurance. How many more taxes will Obama's Nanny State raise on the people he promised not to raise taxes on, to try to control what we consume. Or is this tax just for soda drinkers that earn in the top 5%.

The taxes would pay for only a fraction of the cost to expand health-insurance coverage to all Americans and would face strong opposition from the beverage industry. They also could spark a backlash from consumers who would have to pay several cents more for a soft drink.

Does it apply to diet soda, which contains many possibly dangerous chemicals.

On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee is set to hear proposals from about a dozen experts about how to pay for the comprehensive health-care overhaul that President Barack Obama wants to enact this year.

Here is an idea. Don't pass Obama Care, and you won't have to pay for it.

Early estimates put the cost of the plan at around $1.2 trillion.

That is a LOT of soda.

The administration has so far only earmarked funds for about half of that amount.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Class Warrior

Telegraph reported Wealthy Wall Street financiers and other business figures provided crucial support for Mr Obama during the election, backing him over the Republican candidate John McCain as the right leader to rescue the collapsing US economy. But it is now dawning on many among them that Mr Obama was serious about his campaign trail promises to bring root and branch reform to corporate America - and that they were more than just election rhetoric.

Never back someone who says he is going to hurt you, when you think he is just kidding.

The money is needed to pay for a national debt that will double over the next five years; and triple over the next 10 years to $17.3 trillion.

And there is not that much money available even if he confiscates everything they have. The people that he is promising free things to are going to pay for them, either with taxes or higher prices for goods they buy, or money that loses its buying power.

But the crackdown already faces fierce Democratic resistance. A top Obama fundraiser and hedge fund manager said: "I'm appalled at the anti-Wall Street rhetoric. It was OK on the campaign but now it's the real world.

News Flash. The campaign is the real world. A politician that says he will do one thing, when you think he will do something else, is not one you can trust.

I'm surprised that Obama is turning out to be so left-wing. He's a real class warrior."

And did he not reveal that in the campaign?

Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute, a free enterprise think tank, said Democrats in Congress were unnerved by the president's latest plan to raise $210 billion over 10 years from multinational corporations. The money is needed to pay for a national debt that will double over the next five years; and triple over the next 10 years to $17.3 trillion. But the crackdown already faces fierce Democratic resistance.

And even stiffer Republican resistance. But we are giving him too much power to do whatever he wants.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Cliff Asness responds to Obama

Cliff Asness wrote When hedge funds, pension funds, mutual funds, and individuals, including very sweet grandmothers, lend their money they expect to get it back. However, they know, or should know, they take the risk of not being paid back. But if such a bad event happens it usually does not result in a complete loss. A firm in bankruptcy still has assets. It’s not always a pretty process. Bankruptcy court is about figuring out how to most fairly divvy up the remaining assets based on who is owed what and whose contracts come first. The process already has built-in partial protections for employees and pensions, and can set lenders' contracts aside in order to help the company survive, all of which are the rules of the game lenders know before they lend. But, without this recovery process nobody would lend to risky borrowers. Essentially, lenders accept less than shareholders (means bonds return less than stocks) in good times only because they get more than shareholders in bad times.

And that is the way it should be. A greedy president should not be able to steal investor's money to give an unfair advantage to the union that caused the problem in the first place, just because they gave Obama donations to get him elected.

The above is how it works in America, or how it’s supposed to work. The President and his team sought to avoid having Chrysler go through this process, proposing their own plan for re-organizing the company and partially paying off Chrysler’s creditors. Some bond holders thought this plan unfair. Specifically, they thought it unfairly favored the United Auto Workers, and unfairly paid bondholders less than they would get in bankruptcy court. So, they said no to the plan and decided, as is their right, to take their chances in the bankruptcy process. But, as his quotes above show, the President thought they were being unpatriotic or worse.

To obama patriotism does not mean support for the country, it means support for anything he wants in order to change the country to the Socialistic/Communistic/Fascist view he has for the country.

Let’s be clear, it is the job and obligation of all investment managers, including hedge fund managers, to get their clients the most return they can. They are allowed to be charitable with their own money, and many are spectacularly so, but if they give away their clients’ money to share in the “sacrifice”, they are stealing. Clients of hedge funds include, among others, pension funds of all kinds of workers, unionized and not. The managers have a fiduciary obligation to look after their clients’ money as best they can, not to support the President, nor to oppose him, nor otherwise advance their personal political views. That’s how the system works. If you hired an investment professional and he could preserve more of your money in a financial disaster, but instead he decided to spend it on the UAW so you could “share in the sacrifice”, you would not be happy.

And you would not give that fund any more of your money.

Let’s quickly review a few side issues.

The President's attempted diktat takes money from bondholders and gives it to a labor union that delivers money and votes for him. Why is he not calling on his party to "sacrifice" some campaign contributions, and votes, for the greater good? Shaking down lenders for the benefit of political donors is recycled corruption and abuse of power.

In other words standard Democratic policies.

Let’s also mention only in passing the irony of this same President begging hedge funds to borrow more to purchase other troubled securities. That he expects them to do so when he has already shown what happens if they ask for their money to be repaid fairly would be amusing if not so dangerous. That hedge funds might not participate in these programs because of fear of getting sucked into some toxic demagoguery that ends in arbitrary punishment for trying to work with the Treasury is distressing. Some useful programs, like those designed to help finance consumer loans, won't work because of this irresponsible hectoring.

And the fear that if they buy the toxic assets and try to recover money from them, Obama may get congress to pass laws saying they can't do that. That they must rent the property to people at a price the Government sets.

Last but not least, the President screaming that the hedge funds are looking for an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout is the big lie writ large. Find me a hedge fund that has been bailed out. Find me a hedge fund, even a failed one, that has asked for one. In fact, it was only because hedge funds have not taken government funds that they could stand up to this bullying. The TARP recipients had no choice but to go along. The hedge funds were singled out only because they are unpopular, not because they behaved any differently from any other ethical manager of other people's money. The President’s comments here are backwards and libelous. Yet, somehow I don’t think the hedge funds will be following ACORN’s lead and trucking in a bunch of paid professional protestors soon. Hedge funds really need a community organizer.

This is America. We have a free enterprise system that has worked spectacularly for us for two hundred plus years. When it fails it fixes itself. Most importantly, it is not an owned lackey of the oval office to be scolded for disobedience by the President.

Amen

Two Tulsa Area Bloggers Discuss Star Treck

Christopher Lee and Irritated Tulsan discuss the new Star Trek movie. I can't see it in the theater, but I am eager to see it when it comes out on DVD or Cable.

Miss Susie Goes to Washington

Dutch, Reformed blogged Ten years ago today, as I stood in the back of an ornate committee room in the nation's capital holding six-week-old Mary Margaret, Susie testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, which was considering a new $21 billion daycare plan. (She had been invited by Senator Don Nickles, who later wrote her a note praising her remarks.) Her testimony garnered coverage on News9, in the Tulsa World, and on the front page of The Oklahoman, and was printed on The Oklahoman's editorial page on Mother's Day. Here's what Susie (The Velvet Hammer) Dutcher told the committee:

.... I would love to put more dollars into our retirement account, for example, but I'm forced to put them into your Social Security trust fund, which I don't trust. I'd like to buy more books for Lincoln, Elizabeth, and Mary Margaret, and put more money in their college fund, but you've already seen fit to use that money funding closed-captioning for the Jerry Springer show. I'd love to get ballet lessons for Elizabeth, but my money is tied up buying food stamps for the deceased. I'd love to give more money to support our church's missionary in Albania, or the free medical clinic in Oklahoma City, but instead I'm forced to fund fish farming in Arkansas and Social Security disability payments for escaped convicts. Call us greedy, but my husband and I would like for the most part to make our own choices concerning the fruit of our labor. But naturally, under threat of imprisonment, we defer to your choices.....

Just think what she would say if she was allowed to testify today. The increased spending during the Bush administration was bad, but it is orders of magnitude worse today. They were worried about Mary Margaret then. Obama is spending Mary Margaret's inheritance, and the inheritance of Mary Margaret's children and grandchildren.

Hat tip to Michael Bates

The $357,000 photo

The White House finally released the $357,000 publicity photo of Air Force One that frightened so many New Yorkers because they tried to do it in secret, and not warn anyone of the flight.

AllahPundit blogged Louis Caldera, the White House official who approved the flight, is now nestled snugly alongside Rev. Wright, Father Pfleger, and about 20 other people under the Messiah’s bus.

Christopher Lee says I Could Have Done It MUCH Cheaper. $70 for Photoshop.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Israeli Nukes

Washington Times reported President Obama's efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons threaten to expose and derail a 40-year-old secret U.S. agreement to shield Israel's nuclear weapons from international scrutiny, former and current U.S. and Israeli officials and nuclear specialists say. The issue will likely come to a head when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Mr. Obama on May 18 in Washington. Mr. Netanyahu is expected to seek assurances from Mr. Obama that he will uphold the U.S. commitment and will not trade Israeli nuclear concessions for Iranian ones.

That is because no one believes Iran would keep its word. Except for the promise that it intends to destroy Israel.

Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller, speaking Tuesday at a U.N. meeting on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), said Israel should join the treaty, which would require Israel to declare and relinquish its nuclear arsenal.

If they have to relinquish their arsenal, what about over Iranian airspace?

"Universal adherence to the NPT itself, including by India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea, ... remains a fundamental objective of the United States," Ms. Gottemoeller told the meeting, according to Reuters.

And anyone that expects India and Pakistan to get rid of their nukes, other than over each other's state, is foolish.

Toxic Assets

csmonitor.com reported Buying loans from banks – the types of loans that need to be handled with latex gloves and hazmat suits – is becoming a new growth industry. Former mortgage bankers and Wall Street wheeler-dealers even now are leafing through confidential bank documents detailing tens of billions of dollars of bad mortgages and other loans known as “toxic assets.” Their goal: to find undervalued assets they can buy cheaply and make money on.

What they need to be concerned about is if they buy assets they think they can sell, will congress suddenly change the law and say they cannot eject the current resident that is not paying for the house, and rent it to them at a price congress determines. If the White House will threaten to ruin the reputation of bondholders that will not take 20 cents on the dollar, and are holding out for 30 cents on the dollar for Chrysler, while giving 55% of the company to the unions, what makes you think they will not attempt

It may be chutzpah. It may be opportunism. Or it may be the solution to cleaning up the banks’ balance sheets. Whatever the case, many prospective buyers are mining for data that will help them in June, when a new government plan to deal with banks’ problems starts up.

Get a firm commitment they won't change the rules in mid stream.

This time, unlike during the roaring mortgage boom, some potential investors are actually visiting houses, talking to lenders, and acting like crime scene investigators for bad loans.

Crime scene investigators are what is needed. The people that forced the banks to make bad loans should be in jail, along with the people that bundled bad loans with good and sold them.

The decisions made by loan sleuths on how much to pay for the banks’ bad holdings will determine the success of the government’s plan to try to move those holdings off the banks’ books. If the banks agree to the prices offered for their loans, the shifts in ownership of those loans could ultimately free up capital for the economy’s recovery. But if the banks balk because they believe the assets are more valuable, think about the economy in terms of molasses.

Britain Bans 16 for 'Fostering Extremism'

washingtonpost.com reported The British government on Tuesday named 16 people who have been banned from entering Britain for "fostering extremism or hatred,"

It's about time, but there are a lot more than 16 muslim extremists yu should ban, including a bunch that are already there.

including Muslim extremists, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, a U.S. radio talk show host and a Kansas preacher.

I hope they just included them so they could not be accused of profiling Muslims.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who is responsible for domestic security, said she decided to make the names public to show the kind of behavior that Britain is "not willing to have in this country."

The list includes six Americans. Perhaps the most prominent is Michael Savage, a nationally syndicated conservative radio host who has made controversial remarks about immigrants and Muslims, such as urging Americans to "burn the Mexican flag on your street corner" and saying that "when I see a woman walking around with a burqa, I see a Nazi."

He never flew planes into buildings, killing nearly 3,000, and he did not dance in the street when others did

.... The Rev. Fred W. Phelps Sr. and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church also are unwelcome in the United Kingdom.

I don't want them here either. I wish the UK would take them in, and keep them.

The pair, who have picketed at funerals carrying placards with anti-gay slogans, are banned for "fostering hatred," the Home Office said.

The other Americans on the list are Eric Gliebe, described by the Home Office as a distributor of "racist leaflets"; Abdul Ali Musa, a Muslim activist; and former Klan leader Stephen Donald Black.

Do they include Senator Robert Byrd, a former Klan leader?

Dems Stab Specter

Capitol Briefing reported The Senate dealt a blow tonight to Sen. Arlen Specter's hold on seniority in several key committees, a week after the Pennsylvanian's party switch placed Democrats on the precipice of a 60-seat majority.

And this is after he negotiated a deal with Reid. Does this mean that Reid really does not speak for the Dems he is the supposed leader of in the Senate, or that he promises one thing, and then stabs you in the back once he gets it. I suspect both.

In a unanimous voice vote,

That must mean Reid voted to stab Specter.

the Senate approved a resolution that added Specter to the Democratic side of the dais on the five committees on which he serves, an expected move that gives Democrats larger margins on key panels such as Judiciary and Appropriations.

But just grabs his vote, and devistates Specter. Will Specter try to jump back to the Republicans? Or will he just retire, knowing no one likes him?

But Democrats placed Specter in one of the two most junior slots on each of the five committees for the remainder of this Congress, which goes through December 2010. Democrats have suggested that they will consider revisiting Specter's seniority claim at the committee level only after the midterm elections next year.

And what is the probability of that? If a guarantee from the Majority Leader does not mean anything, what is the promise of reconsidering going to be worth. All they are saying is if you are the Democratic nominee, don't throw the election and let a Republican get in.

"This is all going to be negotiated next Congress," Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), said tonight.

Ed Morrissey blogged Democrats sent a more practical message with this vote. Specter needed to retain his seniority in order to make the argument that electing him would keep Pennsylvania in a position of power in Congress. The caucus has made it much easier for a Democratic primary challenger to beat Specter by taking that advantage away from him.

So the Dems are happy to take Specter away from the Republicans, but they want a real Dem to defeat him in the Democratic primary.

It’s practically a signal flare to Joe Sestak, approving of his run against Specter.

Contrast this to the treatment given Jim Jeffords when he jumped to the Democrats and temporarily gave Tom Daschle control of the Senate. Jeffords kept his seniority and landed a committee chair (Environment and Public Works), and kept his seniority for committee assignments. If Reid really did make a similar deal with Specter, then his caucus just sent him a message as well, a humiliation that will make Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins think twice before following Specter into rookie status.

I wish it would make them vote more reliably with the Republicans.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Ayatollah Moqtada al-Sadr

Adnkronos reported Radical Iraqi Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, is reported to have assumed the title of Grand Ayatollah after concluding his studies in the holy city of Qom in Iran.

When he returns to Iraq someone should remove his head, with the black turban still attached.

Sources close to the cleric's faction released the news to the Arab daily, al-Sharq al-Awsat.

Why?

Obama’s proposed budget this year was $3.6 trillion, and yet somehow he couldn’t find $18 million in it for a school voucher program in DC that WORKS. Parents who worked hard to see Obama get elected want to know the answer to one simple question:

WHY???

Unfortunately the answer is he really does not care what works, or what children need. He wants to appease unions, including the Teacher's Union.

Monday, May 04, 2009

Never let a serious crisis go to waste

The Caucus - Obama Agenda Could Rest on Link to Economic Crisis - NYTimes.com reported Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, encapsulated President Obama’s goal long before the first of the First 100 Days: “Never let a serious crisis go to waste.”

They take advantage of it with solutions that couldn't possibly help, but that they want done.

.... Team Obama casts his initiatives on health care, energy, education and the auto and financial industries as responses to that crisis.

Even though they make things worse, spending money we don't have.

His Republican adversaries call the recession merely an excuse for big-government ambitions that liberals have failed to achieve for decades.

And which they don't think a conservative can reverse when they get in control.

Mr. Obama currently holds the upper hand, riding high in the polls while Republicans appear chaotic and hapless. But he is racing to capitalize for good reason.

At some point people are going to realize their savings will no longer buy what they used to because of the way he is devaluing our currency, and they will turn on him.

Political history, and some early signs this spring, suggest that time is not on his side.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Obama targets tea bags

POLITICO.com reported At his 100th-day town hall meeting in St. Louis Wednesday, President Barack Obama took direct aim at the anti-tax “tea party” demonstrations that have cropped up over the last month and took a veiled shot at the Fox News Channel, the cable news network closely associated with the protests.

And the cable news network that reaches more than CNN and MSNBC compined.

Asked about fiscal discipline and entitlements reform, Obama seemed to be repressing a smile as he jabbed critics of his spending plans. "Those of you who are watching certain news channels on which I'm not very popular, and you see folks waving tea bags around, Obama said, “let me just remind them that I am happy to have a serious conversation about how we are going to cut our health care costs down over the long term,

As long as it results in a single payer system, giving the government control over another part of our lives.

how we are going to stabilize Social Security.”

Which he will do by making senior citizens die faster by making them wait for needed treatment.

“But,” Obama continued, “let's not play games and pretend that the reason [for the deficit] is because of the Recovery Act."

e is right. It is not just because of the Recovery Act

it’s the stimulus and the bank bailouts and the Big Three Auto Company rescue plans and an energy overhaul and health care and increased education spending and all of the other spending of our children's, grandchildren's and greatgranchildren's inheritance to give him more power now.

Money Versus Wealth

Doctor Zero blogged one of the fatal flaws in socialist economic policy [is] the confusion between money and wealth. Money is easy to create. Obama has already stolen a trillion dollars of it from the future.

Stolen from our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, just to give Obama power today.

All that was required was printing up a few more stacks of bills, and adding a few more zeroes to various federal balance sheets. Last night, like every other day of his presidency, Obama spoke about how much money he plans to “invest” in various government programs.

You invest in something that offers a Rate of Return. What is the RoI on Obama's investments, other than more power for him today.

Liberals in general, and the news media in particular, use the amount of money thrown at any given problem as the sole important method of measuring how much we “care” about it.

They show they "care" by spending other people's money. Conservatives show they care by donating more than liberals do to charity.

Wealth is a far more elusive, and important, part of the economy than money. Wealth is what people do with their money… and even more to the point, it’s what people could do with their money.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Workout tips for jihadists

Telegraph reported Complete with photographs of men in white robes with scarves covering their faces

Are they worried fat might see them and attach itself to their bodies

performing a variety of squats and sit-ups, it advises supporters to keep in shape so that they can "strike hard" against their enemies.

But don't listen to the music, or look at the semi-naked women, or use the weights.

There is also a warning against visiting "un-Islamic" western gyms including LA Fitness with their "music, semi-naked women, free mixing and the danger of showing off".

I bet that free ad for LA Fitness brings them a lot of business from jihadists wanting to see the semi-naked women.

And there is advice against using weights because of their unavailability on the front line in places such as Afghanistan.

So don't use them now???

Pirate Arrives in U.S.

NYTimes reported A Somali teenager arrived to face what are believed to be the first piracy charges in the United States in more than a century, smiling

He is very happy. Even if sent to prison here, it is better than living where he lived, and he may be freed in the US by some stupid judge.

but saying nothing as he was led into a federal building under heavy guard. The teenager was flown from Africa to a New York airport on the same day that his mother appealed to President Barack Obama for his release. She said her son was coaxed into piracy by ''gangsters with money.''

Her poor little baby. He took the AK47 willingly, didn't he?

''I appeal to President Obama to pardon my teenager; I request him to release my son or at least allow me to see him and be with him during the trial,''

She wants a free trip to the US too.

Adar Abdirahman Hassan said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from her home in Galkayo town in Somalia. The boy's father, Abdiqadir Muse, said the pirates lied to his son, telling him they were going to get money.

And they tried. They got a bullet to the brain instead.

The family is penniless, he said. ''He just went with them without knowing what he was getting into,''

Did youraise him to know that it was wrong to take a gun and hold someone for ransom?

Muse said in a separate telephone interview with the AP through an interpreter. He also said it was his son's first outing with the pirates

What difference does that make? If he had shot the captain he would have been just as dead as if the pirate had more experience.

after having been taken from his home about a week and a half before he surrendered at sea to U.S. officials. The young pirate's age and real name remained unclear.

Which is why he should not have been brought here.

Court documents list his name as Abduhl Wali-i-Musi, which the boy's parents have said is incorrect. His parents said he is only 16; law enforcement said he is at least 18, meaning prosecutors will not have to take extra legal steps to try him in a U.S. court.

''What we have is a confused teenager, overnight thrown into the highest level of the criminal justice system in the United States out of a country where there's no law at all,'' Jamal said.

Ron Kuby, a New York-based civil rights lawyer, said he has been in discussions about forming a legal team to represent the Somali suspect. ''I think in this particular case, there's a grave question as to whether America was in violation of principles of truce in warfare on the high seas,'' said Kuby. ''This man seemed to come onto the Bainbridge under a flag of truce to negotiate.

While his three buddies were treatening to kill the captain if they did not get $2 million.

He was then captured. There is a question whether he is lawfully in American custody

Would he have prefered a bullet to the brain like his three buddies got.

and serious questions as to whether he can be prosecuted because of his age.''

He never should have been brought to the US in the first place. He should have been given a choice between hanging and walking the plank.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Twitter icons

Inspired Magazine published The Social Bird icon set of icons for website's Twitter widgets.

Ann Althouse noticed Muffbird

but I liked Skate Eagle

Eager to Repay TARP

Bloomberg.com reported JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, who today reported first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ expectations, said his firm could repay U.S. government rescue funds “tomorrow.”

But will Obama let him do so, and lose the government's ability tom control that segment of the banking industry.

Dimon, calling money received through the Troubled Asset Relief Program “a scarlet letter” and “the TARP baby,”

Better back of from that language, they are apt to say it is racist, rather than just a cute play on words.

said on a conference call today that the New York-based bank is awaiting guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department. “We could pay it back tomorrow,” he said.

If they let us.

Covered Over Name of Jesus to Comply With White House Request

CNSNews reported Georgetown University says it covered over the monogram “IHS”--symbolizing the name of Jesus Christ—because it was inscribed on a pediment on the stage where President Obama spoke at the university on Tuesday and the White House had asked Georgetown to cover up all signs and symbols there.

Can't have a "maybe" muslim / "maybe" black theological "christian" associated with the name of Jesus. This is worse than the pro-abortion Obama speaking at a Catholic University in opposition to the beliefs of the Catholic Church.

... “Frankly, the pipe and drape wasn’t high enough by itself to fully cover the IHS and cross above the GU seal and it seemed most respectful to have them covered so as not to be seen out of context.”

Certainly. The would not want the Obamamessiah's name shown with the real Messiah.

Why no Tea Parties under Bush

CNN.com reported SANCHEZ: Why didn't we see these during the Bush administration, who, by the way, has been accused, by the right and the left, of being a bit of a spendthrift himself?

It is a function of degrees. The past several presidents, from both parties, have seemed to try to outspend the previous guy, but none have done it as obscenely as Obama.

PHILLIPS: Well, let me tell you, in 2006, I was in these very studios as part of Americans for Prosperity's Ending Earmark Express. We went to the site of the 50 most outrageous earmarks in the country.

This is a lot more than just some obscene earmarks.

We went to more Republican districts than Democrat districts.

Because Republicans were in control, prior to 2006.

And it's similar, because it's overspending and wasteful spending.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Navy Seal Sniper Teams

Michelle Malkin has praise for the Navy Seal Sniper Teams that freed Captain Richard Phillips from the pirates.

How do we stop piracy?

Hot Air reported If the crew members themselves aren’t qualified to carry weapons — and there’s no reason they can’t be qualified — the shipping companies should hire security forces for ships passing by the Horn of Africa.

Absolutely. And make sure each ship has a yardarm to hang pirates from, or a plank they can be made to walk.

... Our next step after killing the pirates on the lifeboat is torpedoing their ships in their home ports without inspections or even warnings.

And step three is bombing their bases.

Somalia’s failed state can’t impose order on these areas, but if the pirates become a liability rather than an asset to these facilities, they’ll get the heave-ho soon enough.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

U.S. Captain Held by Pirates Is Rescued

NYTimes.com reported United States Navy personnel rescued the captain of an American cargo ship on Sunday by killing three Somali pirates who had been holding him hostage for four days, government and shipping officials said.

Congratulations to the US Navy. One pirate is in custody. He should immediately be given a choice: would he rather hang from the yardarm, or walk the plank. In either case, his death should be filmed, and copies delivered to others in the pirate's base on land.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Somali Pirates

U.S. Negotiations With Somali Pirates Continue

There should be no negotiation until all hostages are freed, and then ask them whether they would prefer to be hung or walk the plank.

washingtonpost.com reported A tense standoff continued in the Indian Ocean Friday between a U.S. Navy destroyer and Somali pirates holding an American container-ship captain hostage on a lifeboat, after the captain tried to escape but was quickly recaptured.... The ship's 20-member American crew subsequently overpowered one of the pirates, but the remaining attackers took Phillips aboard one of the Maersk Alabama's lifeboats. The Americans turned over their captive, but the pirates reneged on a deal to give back the captain in exchange.

You can't trust them.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Navy Tracking Pirates and Their U.S. Hostage

NYTimes.com reported A U.S. Navy destroyer kept close watch Thursday on a lifeboat holding four Somali pirates and their hostage — an American ship captain — one day after the pirates briefly seized a United States-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Africa. As Washington awoke to a second day of the crisis, the Navy summoned the FBI for advice on how to rescue the hostage, Capt. Richard Phillips, of Underhill, Vermont.

Doesn't the Navy, with a great big destroyer, know how to deal with a little lifeboat? You point guns at it and say surrender or you will be shot. You want to protect the life of the hostage, but if the lifeboat eludes you, his life is definitely at risk. If you must, you can promise to just hang the leader, and let the rest spend time in prison, rather than hanging all of them, as you should do.

U.S. May Enlist Small Investors in Bank Bailout

NYTimes.com reported During World War I, Americans were exhorted to buy Liberty Bonds to help their soldiers on the front.

That was because we were at war, not because we had an idiot in the White House wasting the country's money.

Now, it seems, they will be asked to come to the aid of their banks — with the added inducement of possibly making some money for themselves.

It would be a foolish investment, which is why big investors are not touching it. They have seen Congress trying to control Banks and others. If they buy toxic assets, Congress is liable to then tell them they can't sell the properties, but must let people rent them at a price Congress determines.

As part of its sweeping plan to purge banks of troublesome assets, the Obama administration is encouraging several large investment companies to create the financial-crisis equivalent of war bonds: bailout funds.

The idea is that these investments, akin to mutual funds that buy stocks and bonds, would give ordinary Americans a chance to profit from the bailouts that are being financed by their tax dollars.

Mutual funds by stocks and bonds from companies that are good credit risks.

But there is another, deeply political motivation as well: to quiet accusations that all of these giant bailouts will benefit only Wall Street plutocrats.

No one should get bailouts. Prosecute the people that bundled the bad debt and sold it fraudently, prosecute the people that forced banks to make bad loans, and let the holders of the bad loans forclose on people that took loans they knew they could not pay off.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Tony Blair tells the Pope: you're wrong

Times Online reported Tony Blair has challenged the “entrenched” attitudes of the Pope on homosexuality, and argued that it is time for him to “rethink” his views.

Tony has been a Catholic for such a short time, and now he thinks he can tell the Pope he does not understand the tenets of the faith.

Speaking to the gay magazine Attitude, the former Prime Minister, himself now a Roman Catholic, said that he wanted to urge religious figures everywhere to reinterpret their religious texts to see them as metaphorical, not literal,

So we do not listen to what God thinks, we tell Him what H should think.

and suggested that in time this would make all religious groups accept gay people as equals.

We love the sinner; we hate the sin. Should we alto tell thieves and murderers it is ok what they do, because we want to treat them as equals.

Asked about the Pope’s stance, Mr Blair blamed generational differences and said: “We need an attitude of mind where rethinking and the concept of evolving attitudes becomes part of the discipline with which you approach your religious faith.”

In otherwords we should not let our faith teach us, we should decide what we want to do, and mold our faith to accept that. I want to eat chocolate cake. Can you convince God to let me do that and not put on weight?

.... In the interview Mr Blair spoke of a “quiet revolution in thinking” and implied that he believed the Pope to be out of step with the public.

There is a lot of violence in the world, and the Pope condem that too. Is he also out of step with the world in that area?

“There are many good and great things the Catholic Church does, and there are many fantastic things this Pope stands for, but I think what is interesting is that if you went into any Catholic Church, particularly a wellattended one, on any Sunday here and did a poll of the congregation, you’d be surprised at how liberal-minded people were.”

So faith is determined by polls. Can ou run a poll on chocolate cake? I bet it will win, especially with ice cream on it.

The faith of ordinary Catholics is rarely found “in those types of entrenched attitudes”, he said.

He also thought that in Islam there would eventually be a change of heart.

Not until they open the gates of ijtihad

“I believe that, ultimately, people will find their way to a sensible reformation of attitudes.”

If Britain does not wise up son, there will be a reformation of attitudes, and you will get a better understanding about how easily it is to change Sharia law.

.... He said: “When people quote the passages in Leviticus condemning homosexuality, I say to them — if you read the whole of the Old Testament and took everything that was there in a literal way, as being what God and religion is about, you’d have some pretty tough policies across the whole of the piece.”

True but God sent Jesus to clarify some of those tough policies, and acceptance of homosexuality was not one of the things Jesus taught.

Monday, April 06, 2009

How the Crash Will Reshape America

The Atlantic reported What’s the right spatial fix for the economy today, and how do we achieve it? The solution begins with the removal of homeownership from its long-privileged place at the center of the U.S. economy.

Stupidity. Housing bubble caused the problem, so penalize homeowners.

Substantial incentives for homeownership (from tax breaks to artificially low mortgage-interest rates) distort demand, encouraging people to buy bigger houses than they otherwise would.

No it was sub prime mortgages the did that.

.... If anything, our government policies should encourage renting, not buying. Homeownership occupies a central place in the American Dream primarily because decades of policy have put it there.

No it was because with home ownership, if you paid your nortgage for 20 or 30 years you would own your home, and have some place to stay when you got old.

A recent study by Grace Wong, an economist at the Wharton School of Business, shows that, controlling for income and demographics, homeowners are no happier than renters,

You can craft a study to show whatever yu want, expecially if you can fudge the numbers (i.e. controlling for ...)

nor do they report lower levels of stress or higher levels of self-esteem.

And while homeownership has some social benefits—a higher level of civic engagement is one—

And people take better care of property they own, rather than rent.

it is costly to the economy. The economist Andrew Oswald has demonstrated that in both the United States and Europe, those places with higher homeownership rates also suffer from higher unemployment.

That is stupid.

Homeownership, Oswald found, is a more important predictor of unemployment than rates of unionization or the generosity of welfare benefits. Too often, it ties people to declining or blighted locations, and forces them into work—if they can find it—that is a poor match for their interests and abilities.

As homeownership rates have risen, our society has become less nimble: in the 1950s and 1960s, Americans were nearly twice as likely to move in a given year as they are today.

If they don't move as often, they can get to know their neighbors better.

Last year fewer Americans moved, as a percentage of the population, than in any year since the Census Bureau started tracking address changes, in the late 1940s. This sort of creeping rigidity in the labor market is a bad sign for the economy, particularly in a time when businesses, industries, and regions are rising and falling quickly.

The foreclosure crisis creates a real opportunity here. Instead of resisting foreclosures, the government should seek to facilitate them in ways that can minimize pain and disruption. Banks that take back homes, for instance, could be required to offer to rent each home to the previous homeowner,

Force banks into becoming landlords.

at market rates—which are typically lower than mortgage payments

That is because rental does not result in ownership.

—for some number of years. (At the end of that period, the former homeowner could be given the option to repurchase the home at the prevailing market price.)

Why should he want to purchase; you said rental was better.

A bigger, healthier rental market, with more choices, would make renting a more attractive option for many people; it would also make the economy as a whole more flexible and responsive.

You take away the investment incentives that makes individuals invest in renal properties and force banks to become landlords, something they are not qualified to do.

Not at war with Islam

AP reported Barack Obama, making his first visit to a Muslim nation as president, declared Monday the United States "is not and will never be at war with Islam."

That is what George Bush said, but despite the fact that 58% say Islam is a religion of peace, there are a significant number of Muslims that interpret the Koran as saying they have to be at war with us, and so they will continue to do everything they can to kill as many Christians, Jews, Hindus, and any other faith, as well as no faith at all, that they can.

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Suspect in officers' shooting

Post Gazette reported Richard Andrew Poplawski was a young man convinced the nation was secretly controlled by a cabal

I would not call the Democratic Party a "cabal"

that would eradicate freedom of speech,

I am afraid he is right there.

take away his guns

And I am afraid he is right there too, and just gave them an excuse

and use the military to enslave the citizenry.

There I believe he is wrong, and if they attempt to do so, I suspect the military will either refuse, or turn on the would-be controllers.

Friday, April 03, 2009

Russia in NATO? Nyet!!!!

csmonitor.com reported "We need Russia for the resolution of European and global problems," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told journalists earlier this week. "That is why I think it would be good for Russia to join NATO," if it can meet membership requirements, he added.

That would be sheer stupidity.

Moscow's official response to Mr. Sikorski's suggestion, delivered by Russia's NATO ambassador, Dmitri Rogozin, was a study in ambivalence: "There is no such necessity at the moment [to join NATO], but we cannot rule out this opportunity in future," he said.

I certainly can. It is hard enough to get them to act in the Security Council, and we sometimes have to go to NATO instead.

Some Held at U.S. Base in Afghanistan Have Right to Habeas Corpus

NYTimes reported A federal judge ruled on Thursday that some prisoners held by the United States military in Afghanistan have a right to challenge their imprisonment,

Does the military also have to give some prisoners Miranda rights? And who decides who?

dealing a blow to government efforts to detain terrorism suspects for extended periods without court oversight. In a 53-page ruling that rejected a claim of unfettered executive power advanced by both the Bush and Obama administrations, United States District Judge John D. Bates said that three detainees at the United States’ Bagram Air Base had the same legal rights that the Supreme Court last year granted to prisoners held at the American naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

How is the military supposed to fight if a foreign battlefield is under the jurisdiction of US judges

Video of Taliban Flogging Rattles Pakistan

NYTimes.com reported The video shows a young girl held face down as a Taliban commander whips her repeatedly with a leather strap. “Leave me for the moment — you can beat me again later,”

This always made me wonder. In prison they will sentence someone to a huge number of lashes, in the hundreds, but administer them in pieces, as they heal from one lashing they get another installment

she screams, pleading for a reprieve and writhing in pain. Paying no heed, the commander orders the others to tighten their grip on her and continues the public flogging.

He was havong too much fun.

A large group of men quietly stands and watches in a circle around her.

Probably getting sexual stisfaction from the scene.

The girl in the video is a 17-year-old resident of Kabal in the restive Swat region in northwestern Pakistan. The images, which have been aired repeatedly by private television news networks in Pakistan, have caused outrage here and set off bitter condemnation by rights activists and politicians.

There must be some civilized people there.

It has also raised questions once again about the government’s decision to enter into a peace deal in February that effectively ceded Swat to the Taliban

Making a deal with the devil.

and allowed them to impose Islamic law.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Replace Dollar as Reserve Currency

NYTimes.com reported Barely 24 hours after announcing that Russia and the United States would cooperate on a variety of long-simmering issues, President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia reproposed a Russian idea that the United States had thought it had batted away: starting a new basket of strong regional currencies to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

That is not unreasonable. Obama is devaluing the dollar so much I can see why other countries would be concerned about it.

Mr. Jefferson

We're keeping score

Karl Rove Says Barack Obama Has Moved Chicago Politics to the White House - WSJ.com reported "Don't think we're not keeping score, brother."

So are the American People, and you have struck out many times.

That's what President Barack Obama said to Rep. Peter DeFazio in a closed-door meeting of the House Democratic Caucus last week, according to the Associated Press.

Obama does not have enough opposition from the Republicans, now he is targeting Dems.

A few weeks ago, Mr. DeFazio voted against the administration's stimulus bill.

Good for him.

The comment from Mr. Obama was a presidential rebuke and part of a new, hard-nosed push by the White House to pressure Congress to adopt the president's budget. He has mobilized outside groups and enlisted forces still in place from the Obama campaign.

Senior presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett and her chief of staff, Michael Strautmanis, are in regular contact with MoveOn.Org, Americans United for Change and other liberal interest groups. Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina has collaborated with Americans United for Change on strategy and even ad copy.

Is that legal?

Ms. Jarrett invited leaders of the liberal interest groups to a White House social event with the president and first lady to kick off the lobbying campaign.

Its targets were initially Republicans, as team Obama ran ads depicting the GOP as the "party of no." But now the fire is being trained on Democrats worried about runaway spending.

We are all worried.

Americans United is going after Democrats who are skeptical of Mr. Obama's plans to double the national debt in five years and nearly triple it in 10. The White House is taking aim at lawmakers in 12 states, including Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. MoveOn.Org is running ads aimed at 10 moderate Senate and House Democrats.

That should make it easier for Republicans to take their seats in 2010.

And robocalls are urging voters in key districts to pressure their congressman to get in line.

Integration

The Local reported Believers file quietly out of a mosque into the cold night in Rosengård, a neighbourhood at the centre of a heated debate over Sweden's failure to integrate immigrants amid reports that radical Islamists now control the area. "How does society expect us to integrate when we are so segregated?" asks Sami Touman, a 21-year-old mechanical engineer student whose family comes from Gaza.

How about moving to another area, and acting like a Swede.

.... Traditional Swedish names like Svensson, Larsson and Andersson have gradually disappeared from the metal buzzers, replaced to a large extent by the names of Muslim refugees who have fled conflicts in places like Iraq, Lebanon, the former Yugoslavia, Somalia and Afghanistan.

They leave home to get away from the violence, and the create violence themselves.

"When I first got here 15 years ago I had Swedish neighbours. Today, there isn't a single one left," says Anis, a 33-year-old of Bosnian origin who only gives his first name, as he eats a kebab at the large shopping centre that is Rosengård's main meeting point.

Maybe they moved because of the violent clashes caused by the "immigrant youths".

The neighbourhood found itself in the midst of a media frenzy in December following days of violent clashes between immigrant youths and police, and again in January after a government-commissioned report claimed a small group of radical Islamists had a stranglehold on the area. "Families who have just moved into the neighbourhood and who have never been particularly religious or traditional claim that they led freer lives in their home country than in Rosengård," the report said.

I would say go home, but the violence in Sweden was caused by Muslim youth, and you left home because of the violence there. Could it be that Muslim equals violence. Try embracing Christ.

.... While Sweden's official unemployment rate stands at around seven percent, nearly 40 percent of Rosengård working age residents are jobless.

Do they speak Swedish? Maybe that is necessary to get a good job.

"A lot of young people here are out of work... Their parents don't work, and they get their only social interaction in the Islamic milieu, which complicates integration," says Camara, originally from Guinea.

So what should Sweden do to eliminate the "Islamic milieu"?

"They spend their time speaking Arabic," he says, adding that "at heart they don't really want to be Swedish. They tell me so themselves."

Then why don't they move to a country where Arabic is the common language.

Even the imam (preacher) at Rosengård's largest mosque complains that some immigrant communities here are not as open as they should be to Swedish society. "That is a problem for us, for Europe, having some communities always looking to the past," says Bejzat Becirov, who gives his sermons in Swedish.

I am happy to hear that, but maybe they don't understand his sermons if they spend their time speaking Arabic.

Death penalty for those who sell land to Jews

Jerusalem Post reported The Palestinian Authority has issued yet another warning to Palestinians against selling their homes or properties to Jews, saying those who violate the order would be accused of "high treason" - a charge that carries the death penalty.

Apparently Muslims only recognize land transfers that result from conquest and killing, and not land bought and paid for.

... Sheikh Tamimi's warning came in response to reports that Jewish businessmen from the US had purchased 20 dunams of land from Palestinians on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

An area given to the Jews by God, but still the Jews were willing to compensate the current owners.

... He said that the ban was necessary to counter the Israeli government's efforts to change the Arab and Islamic culture of Jerusalem by expelling its Arab residents and turning it into a Jewish city.

Which is what it should be. Jerusalem is not even mentioned in the Koran. Muslims claim it because of a dream about the "furthest mosque"

"The city of Jerusalem is the religious, political and spiritual capital of the Palestinians," he said.

Palestine was never a country, and Jerusalem has only been the capital of a Jewish state.

"The Jews have no rights in Jerusalem.

No,the Muslims have no rights to Jerusalem, however arab citizens living in Israel have more rights than arabs living in other countries in the Middle East.

This is an occupied city like the rest of the territories that were occupied in 1967."

Baloney.

Scores of Palestinians have been murdered over the past three decades for allegedly selling their property to Jews or for acting as intermediaries in real estate deeds involving Jews.

Islam, the Religion of Peace. NOT!!!

Global Warming

George Will noted in a WaPo editorial
according to statistics published by the World Meteorological Organization there has not been a warmer year on record than 1998.

Jonathan Chait of Tne New Republic, Steve Benen of Washington Monthly, and Get Energy Smart whined Will (again) cites the unusually hot year of 1998 to prove that the planet isn't warming. He fails to understand a very basic concept in data that you don't need any particular social science expertise to grasp, which is that trends don't always move in a perfectly straight line. The planet has been getting warmer,

At least until 1998, and since then it has gotten cooler.

and there was an extreme spike in 1998.

And the GW hysteria has been built around such a spike. And now the spike is used against them.

Both these things can be true.

But because something CAN be true, does not mean it is.

Michel Jarraud of WMO said It is a misinterpretation of the data and of scientific knowledge to point to one year as the warmest on record and then to extrapolate that cooler subsequent years invalidate the reality of global warming and its effects.

And it is equally invalid to pretend that the cooling that has happened since 1998 never took place.

Two sides

Two sides to the story. Red State took a MoveOn.org ad and made a few improvements (added a dash of truth)

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Securing Afghanistan

Mehrnews reported U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday that Tehran has an interest in securing Afghanistan

Of course they want to secure it, as take possession of it, as they would like to secure Iraq. They want to be the dominant country in the area. They have no interest in it becoming an secure, independent country. Their only interest in the drugs would be to finance terrorism.

as Iran is flooded with huge drug flow from its eastern neighbor.

Deficit

Washingtonpost.com reported In the first independent analysis, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that President Obama's budget would rack up massive deficits even after the economy recovers, forcing the nation to borrow nearly $9.3 trillion over the next decade.

The Foundry reported President Barack Obama has repeatedly claimed that his budget would cut the deficit by half by the end of his term. But as Heritage analyst Brian Riedl has pointed out, given that Obama has already helped quadruple the deficit with his stimulus package, pledging to halve it by 2013 is hardly ambitious.

Absolutely. It is still twice Bush's deficit. And he has brought things like the Iraq war into the budget and projected it for 10 years, while at the same time promising to get out in one year, and it will still be in the baseline for him to say he cut that much when he never planned to spend it.

The Washington Post has a great graphic which helps put President Obama’s budget deficits in context of President Bush’s.

Shown above

Gateway Pundit blogged The US debt is so large that America couldn't qualify to join the EU.

Lunatic

Reuters reported Taliban insurgents reject a U.S. offer of "honorable reconciliation," a top spokesman said on Wednesday, calling it a "lunatic idea"

It was. Only a lunatic, or a left wing idiot, (wich is the same thing) would think they are honorable or want reconciliation or peace.

and saying the only way to end the war was to withdraw foreign troops.

I.E. surrender, so they could take over the country, and allow groups to use it to plan more attacks like 9/11.

Best wishes, Ann

Andrew Sullivan and Jesse Taylor of Pandagon seem to think it is a subject of derision that Ann Althouse is going to be married to a man who she initially met as he commented on her blog. People on the left can't seem to abide even Centrists like Ann, who voted for Obama, much less Conservatives.

I am just happy that she found someone to love, who loves her, and I wish her the best in the world.

Palestinian youth orchestra disbanded

Haaretz reported Palestinian authorities disbanded a youth orchestra from a West Bank refugee camp after it played for a group of Holocaust survivors in Israel, a local official said on Sunday. Adnan Hindi of the Jenin camp called the Holocaust a political issue

It is a historical issue

and accused conductor Wafa Younis of unknowingly dragging the children into a political dispute.

What dispute? They played some music that was heard by Jews? Aren't you pretending you want to live in peace with your neighbors? It would seem playing music for them might make them think you did not just want to kill them.

He added that Younis has been barred from the camp and the apartment where she taught the 13-member Strings of Freedom orchestra has been boarded up.

That'll show them. Punish the Paletinian girls.

"She exploited the children," said Hindi, the head of the camp's popular committee, which takes on municipal duties. "She will be forbidden from doing any activities.... We have to protect our children and our community."

We can't have them playing pretty music for Jooozz

The move highlights the sensitivity of many Palestinians over acknowledging Jewish suffering, fearing it would weaken their own historical grievances against Israel.

There is no comparison. The Jews were killed because Hitler wanted to get rid of them. If Israel wanted to get rid of the Palestinians, it would kill the ones it has in prison, rather than feeding them, and it would bomb indiscriminately when you shoot rockets at Israel. And if the other Arab countries cared about the Palestinians it would settle them in their countries. Many Jews were run out of Jordan, and they settled in Israel. Why can't the Paletinians settle in Jordan, or any other Arab country?

"The Holocaust happened, but we are facing a similar massacre by the Jews themselves," Hindi said. "We lost our land, and we were forced to flee and we've lived in refugee camps for the past 50 years."

You were forced to flee by Arabs that wanted you out of the way while they tried to destroy the newly formed Israel. Arabs who stayed now have more rights than arabs in any other country in the Middle East

.... Kaynan Rabino, director of Ruach Tova, or Good Spirit, the charity that organized the event, said he was disappointed to hear about the reaction in Jenin. "They approached us and volunteered to play. Wafa knew the orchestra would play before Holocaust survivors," he said. "We wanted to bring people's hearts closer together and if they are against that then that's a real shame."

They don't want to bring hearts together; they want to kill Jews.

.... At last Wednesday's performance, most of the Holocaust survivors did not know the youths were Palestinians from the West Bank,

They probably assumed they were civilized arabs, like those living freely in Israel

a rare sight in Israel these days. And the youths had no idea they were performing for people who lived through Nazi genocide - or even what the Holocaust was.

A problem with Palestinian education, that only teaches hatred of the Jews.

They want to tell you what choice to make

POLITICO.com reported Tim Kaine, the Virginia governor and President Barack Obama's hand-picked choice as the head of the Democratic National Committee, infuriated abortion-rights groups Monday by signing legislation that gives abortion foes a long-sought victory.

Why are they infuriated? They are Pro Choice aren't they? The plate says "Choose Life". Or is it that they want to tell you what choice to make?

Kaine brushed off intense lobbying by abortion rights supporters in Richmond to sign a bill that allows Virginia motorists to advertise their anti-abortion views by sporting "Choose Life" specialty license plates.

The revenue from the specialty plates would go to crisis-pregnancy centers, which many abortion-rights backers believe proslyetize against abortion and encourage women to keep unwanted children.

And they don't want to have to spend all the money they make providing abortions to counteract the support that $35 per license plate can provide.

... “It is surprising that Governor Kaine would do this, but it’s all the more surprising that he would do it as chair of the DNC,” said Paulette McElwain, the president of the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood.

Why? They satisfied the legal requirements didn't they. Does Paulette suggest the Governor should violate the law, and especially as chair of the DNC?

McElwain exchanged numerous calls with the governor’s office over the license plates and organized a grass roots effort that logged more than 2,000 calls to the governor’s staff. “We provided him with abundant information,” she said. “We’re terribly disappointed that he decided to sign it.”

What information did they provide him? It sounds like they got got 2,000 people to whine they don't like Pro Life.

In Washington, NARAL/Pro-Choice America channeled more than 17,000 emails and 200 calls to the DNC urging Kaine to veto the bill. “It is unfortunate that, even after receiving thousands of messages from Virginians and pro-choice activists across the country, Gov. Kaine has opted to sign a bill that advances a divisive political ideology

"Life" and a little boy or girl is a divisive political ideology?

at the expense of women’s health,”

The plate does not say "support back room abortions" it says "Choose Life"

NARAL/Pro-Choice America president Nancy Keenan said in a statement.

The “Choose Life” plate was among a number of designs approved by Kaine, including one honoring the Washington Capitals professional hockey team. To request a plate, a group must get at least 350 people to prepay a $25 fee.

And if they can get 200 people to call, or 17,000 to email, surely they can get 350 to pay $25 for a plate that says "Kill Your Baby"

Kaine defended the move by pointing out that Virginia has a “long-standing program” allowing customized license plates and said that if Planned Parenthood applied for a plate he would grant it.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Bankruptcy May Be Best Option

CNBC reported General Motors's new chief executive told CNBC that filing for Bankruptcy may be the best option for the struggling automaker.

I've known all along tat Chapter 11 was going to be the only way to fix GM. But why couldn't they have firgure that out before we poured so many billions into the black hole.

In a taped interview to be aired tonight on NBC Nightly News, Fritz Henderson said that because of greater demands from the Obama administration to restructure, GM is considering the bankruptcy option.

He does not want Obama to fire him too.

The auto giant previously had ruled out such a move, saying it would discourage people from buying GM cars.

How are they going to get loans to buy them anyway, and will they want to buy the green cars the government is going to force GM to make. We have already seen how well five and ten year plans worked out in the Soviet Union, as the bureaucracy tried to run the economy.

Henderson's comments came after President Obama bluntly rejected turnaround plans by GM and Chrysler and demanded that both companies make fresh concessions in order to get more federal aid.

Taliban Leader Vows To Attack D.C. "Soon"

CBS News reported The top Taliban commander in Pakistan promised an assault on Washington "soon" - one he says will "amaze" the world.

He better hurry. Obama is destroying not just DV, but the entire country.

"Soon we will launch an attack in Washington that will amaze everyone in the world," Baitullah Mehsud told The Associated Press by phone.

You may find it is easier to attack a police academy outside of Lahore than Washington DC, Baitullah

Mehsud also claimed responsibility for Monday's attack on a police academy outside the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, saying it was in retaliation for U.S. missile strikes against militants along the Afghan border.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

We The People Stimulus Package

Common Sense

Thomas Paine, author of "Common Sense," returns to modern times to pleas for a second revolution to take back America, Now!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

ACLU supports violence

FrontPage Magazine reported An unlikely alliance of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian lawyers’ group that usually fiercely opposes the ACLU, along with several other groups, is contesting a proposed Bureau of Prisons rule that prohibits “materials that could incite, promote, or otherwise suggest the commission of violence or criminal activity” from being placed in prison chapel libraries. It would enable prison officials to remove from libraries books that they deem to be “advocating or fostering violence, vengeance or hatred toward particular religious, racial or ethnic groups” or advocating “the overthrow or destruction of the United States.”

The ACLU has framed the issue as one of religious freedom. David Shapiro, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Prison Project, explained: “BOP officials need to follow the law, not engage in the business of banning religious material.

If they were banning all religious material, I would agree with you. But material inciting people to create violent acts should not be protected because someone says it is "religious material"

Distributing and reading religious material is as protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as worshipping in churches or preaching from the pulpits. It is not the role of the government to dictate what is religiously acceptable.”

They are not saying what is religiously acceptable, they are saying violence, or encouraging violence, is not socially acceptable.

What’s more, the ACLU and its allies charge that the rule as written, with its language about material that “could…suggest” violence, is too broad, and can be applied in far too sweeping a manner. “We’re with the ACLU on this particular issue because it’s very important for religious freedom that these texts be available,” said Kevin Theriot of the ADF. “Somebody could take offense with the Bible, which teaches that Jesus is the only way to the Father. That’s an offensive idea to people who are not Christians.

There is a big difference between saying something someone might find offensive and encouraging violence. He also said And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.. He did not say Fight those who do not believe in God and the Last Day and do not forbid what God and his Messenger have forbidden — such men as practice not the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book [i.e., Christians and Jews] – until they pay the tribute out of hand and have been humbled

Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, indicating that "your neighbor" means a total stranger, or someone that happens to be nearby. He did not say O ye who believe! take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: They are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them. Verily Allah guideth not a people unjust.

And He certainly did not say So when you meet in battle those who disbelieve, then smite the necks [cut off their heads] until when you have overcome them, then make (them) prisoners, and afterwards either set them free as a favor or let them ransom (themselves) until the war terminates. That (shall be so); and if Allah had pleased He would certainly have exacted what is due from them, but that He may try some of you by means of others; and (as for) those who are slain in the way of Allah, He will by no means allow their deeds to perish.

Jesus Christ shed his blood on the cross so that people could come to God. Muhammad shed other people's blood so that his constituents could have political power throughout the Arabian peninsula.

They could say that’s inciting trouble.”

If you commit violence because you are offended, then you are the one at fault.

Shapiro agrees in principle: “They could remove texts that are critical to prisoners’ ability to practice their religion.” And indeed, there are indications that Bureau of Prisons officials have been overzealous in applying the law. The ACLU says that authorities have ordered removed from prison chapel libraries books that do not incite violence by any stretch of the imagination, including Moses Maimonides’ Code of Jewish Law and The Purpose Driven Life by the popular evangelical pastor Rick Warren.

I suspect they did that because they thought it was easier to ban all religious material, but if they did that, they were wrong.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Cocks and Balls shrinking in the UK

Oddly Enough reported The number of people in Britain with surnames like Cockshott, Balls, Death and Shufflebottom -- likely the source of schoolroom laughter -- has declined by up to 75 percent in the last century.

This isn't related to the nutcase in Britain calling for the population to decrease by 50%, is it?

A study found the number of people with the name Cock shrank to 785 last year from 3,211 in 1881, those called Balls fell to 1,299 from 2,904 and the number of Deaths were reduced to 605 from 1,133. People named Smellie decreased by 70 percent, Dafts by 51 percent, Gotobeds by 42 percent, Shufflebottoms by 40 percent, and Cockshotts by 34 percent, said Richard Webber, visiting professor of geography at King's College, London. "If you find the (absolute) number goes down, it's either because they changed their names

I'd be willing to bet they changed their name.

or they emigrated," Webber, author of the study, told Reuters on Wednesday.... Webber also found that between 1996 and 2008, the names Zhang, Wang, and Yang and experienced the fastest growth. Zhang rose by 4719 percent, while Wang grew by 2225 percent.

Must have a slant to the East.

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Monday, May 04, 2009

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Monday, April 13, 2009

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Friday, April 10, 2009

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Monday, April 06, 2009

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Friday, April 03, 2009

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Friday, March 20, 2009

Followers

Blog Archive

Bible Search

Blogrolls

Plaxo Badge