Does Any Life Have Value Anymore?

I've previously mentioned on my blog that I have diabetes. It's a drag, but I make the best of it.

But diabetes is a disability, so you can imagine my horror when I read on Pajamas Media tonight about a couple who were awarded $4.5 because their child was born disabled, and they were not told that he was disabled while he was in the womb. They got a huge settlement because they missed the opportunity to abort their son.

From PJM:

On September 9, a West Palm Beach jury awarded parents Rodolfo Santana and Ana Mejia $4.5 million because they did not get accurate information from Dr. Marie Morel and OB/GYN Specialists of the Palm Beaches. Their son Bryan Santana, now age 3, was born disabled. He has no arms and only one leg. The argument made by his parents was that if the clinic had told them their son was so disabled, they would have aborted him. And since they didn’t get a chance to terminate Bryan in the womb, and obviously they can’t legally do it now, they wanted millions of dollars.
The woman, who certainly will not win any mother-of-the year awards, told the jury during the two-week trial:

Definitely, I would have had an abortion.

I hope when little Bryan grows up he never Googles himself or his parents. I can’t imagine the horror when he reads that his parents wish they would have killed him. I wonder how quickly he will grasp that his parents think his life, since he has disabilities, isn’t worth living. I wonder if that jury considered how the disabled community would feel if they knew that a jury awarded these parents millions because they missed the opportunity to abort their disabled son.

There are some things in life that are so, so, out of left field that there are no words for. Can you imagine what will happen if poor Bryan ever asks his parents if they would have aborted him if they knew he would be disabled? Once, in a deep fit of despair, I asked my mother if she would have aborted me if she would have known that I was going to have diabetes. (It's a long story; my journey with diabetes has had some bumps in the road.) She said no, and I believe her. I know where she stands of the issue of life. I cannot imagine what will happen to poor Bryan if he ever asks his mother if she would have aborted him. And even if she does lie and say she would have kept him, one quick Internet search will debunk that.
 
Continuing:
 

Few people realize how much sentiment exists out there that the disabled are less than human. If you want proof one only has too look at abortion. In the UK, for example, there are limits on when you can abort a baby unless that baby has severe disabilities. The UK law does not define those disabilities but allows abortion up until the moment of birth if the child is disabled. Why? Obviously the message is that a child with disabilities has less value or reason to live. The West Palm Beach jury would agree with that atrocious idea.

The numbers should shock you. In America, 90% of non-life threatening disabled babies are aborted. If you have a disability in the womb, you have a 1 in 10 chance of being born. You have a 9 in 10 chance of your parents deciding your life isn’t worth living. In 2003, a Gallup poll revealed that almost 6 in 10 Americans think it is okay to abort if a child has a mental or physical disability. Imagine if instead of a disability, 6 in 10 said it was okay to abort because a child is black or female.

Thankfully, these numbers are so shocking that even some on the pro-choice Left see this as a problem. The Left is conflicted in being pro-rights for all types of minorities, but being pro-choice on abortion...

We need more on the Left to realize their own double standard. Ted Kennedy, who was a huge pro-choice advocate, understood the poor treatment of the disabled. In 2005, Kennedy co-sponsored the Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act. That bill expanded federal financing to teach parents of children with Down Syndrome how to help raise them. Kennedy understood that parents needed to learn that disabled children had equal value, and if parents learned those skills, then they wouldn’t feel the need to abort. The goal of the bill was to stop the atrocious rate of abortions based on a child being diagnosed with Down Syndrome. That bill was co-sponsored by big pro-lifer Sam Brownback, it was signed into law by President Bush, and it was actually backed by the pro-abortion NARAL.

Proving that even Democrats get it right sometimes. I cannot believe this. Thank you world, for proving how little value you ascribe to lives that don't fit your standards. You know, I enjoy life. No, I really do, and that includes my life with diabetes. Sometimes I don't think I'd be who I am today if I hadn't had diabetes. Don't get me wrong, I want a cure for this disease, and life has not always been easy with it, but who's life is ever easy? You disgust by your morally bankrupt insinuation that my life is worth less than yours!

Perhaps it's my diabetes talking here, but all life has value. It doesn't matter if a person have diabetes or Down Syndrome or missing limbs or any combination of the three. All life has value whether disabled or not.

Maybe only people with diabilities will ever realize that.

Related: Canada allows infanticide

Tomorrow's Political Forecast: Partly Tyranical with a 53% Chance of Atlas Shrugging

Is it just me, or have things actually gotten worse since the Dems were voted out? Oh wait, it's not just me - It has.

Alright, so the Democrats are angry that we rejected their tyranny, but I don't understand why they still have the power to ruin our lives like this. It annoys me.

Let's see, what all kind of crud has happened the past few days? Well, tonight I got word that the FCC has decided to start regulating the Internet. (Keep your hands off my computer! Dial R 4 Infinity is a No Net Neutrality zone!!) Also,

- The Senate passed a food safety bill that gives the FDA more power. The Republicans abandoned the Tea Party to jump on board with the Democrats. You can follow this link to see several lies about that bill get debunked. (Even if you don't read that food safety bill, I strongly suggest reading NaturalNews article in the second link.)

- In an utterly stupid move, the Senate decided to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell. The stupidity of this is just mind blowing. It's an army, not a social club, and it's no place to host a social experiment like this. In fact, I can predict how this ends because everytime I hear about a different country that allows fags to serve, the army can't fight worth squat.

- The irony meter went through the roof on Sunday when Wikileaks traitor Julian Assange's lawyers went out and complained that details about their client's sex life were leaked. (We read the documents on Wikileaks.)

And last, and probably worst (maybe...it's hard to tell) is the fact that the Republicans also collapsed on the START nuclear treaty with Russia. Now there is a motion to advance it. (Irritating me even more is the fact that one of my idiot Senators, RINO Dick Lugar, voted yes. Democrat Evan Bayh, who has retired, abstained from voting. I never thought I'd appreciate a Democrat over a Republican, but I do in this case.)(Wait a minute, I just admitted that I prefer Bayh over Lugar. What is this, the apocalypse?)

I digress. Today I was thinking about all this crap and I thought, you know, I'm getting an Atlas Shrugged vibe here. Who knew Ann Rand was qualified to be a prophetess? In Atlas Shrugged, the government is always after more power. And when whatever they're running fails, they demand more power to make sure it doesn't fail again. (even though the collapse was their fault in the first place.) That's what's happened with this new Food Safety bill. The FDA botched up, so of course they want more power now to make sure they can screw up our lives don't screw up again. (See lie #5 on the Natural News link up there.)

DADT qualifies under the 'making life fair' part of the government in Atlas Shrugged. And yes, the government in the book did try and make life fair. (They also used class warfare. I'm telling you: flat tax.)

Ever since Obummer came to power I've heard different people say it was like they went to bed in America and woke up after the election in a Banana Republic or the Twilight Zone or something like that. Well, now that I'd done reading AS, it feels like I went to bed in the real world and woke up in the book.

Which begs the question: WHERE IS JOHN GALT? Where is the person is going to restore sanity to those with the minds to accept it? I'm ready to accept it. Heck, I'm ready to move to Galt's Gulch. (Though I admit it will be hard to ship my books out there.)

All joking aside, no, I really am waiting for the person who's going to save America. And no, Obama is not qualified to do that job. Heck, he's not qualified to a Wal-Mart cashier. So who's going to save us now? (Oh heck, for that matter we may as well ask who is John Galt?)

No, I'm not giving up. Not yet. We still have another shot, as soon as January fifth rolls around. But it's not coming fast enough. This lame duck session should never have happened. Obama knows this is his one last shot to get the things he wants done. He is such an idiot it isn't funny. Washington D.C. is suicidal, and they want America to die with them.

Paging John Galt.

Obama needs his License Revoked

"After they drove the car into the ditch, made it as difficult as possible for us to pull it back, now they want the keys back. No. You can't drive. We don't want to have to go back into the ditch. We just got the car out."

- Barack Obama, attempting to prove that his party should be re-elected (And proving that he thinks you, the average voter, has no idea what's going on.)

Someone should go tell Obama to go take a look at his poll numbers. He's not doing so hot - and neither is Congress. He had this cute little metaphor that if you want to go forward you put the car in 'D' not 'R'. In this little metaphor, Obama is saying that if you vote Democrat, he can get you out of the ditch, but not if you vote Republican. Of course, this little metaphor might work better if he hadn't put the car into gear and then drove it into the ditch.

Obama has once again proved how out of touch with reality he is. The economy failed in the latter end of George Bush's term largely because of the housing bubble, which was built up by Democrats to start with! Then Obama came along promising change and put the car even further in the ditch by killing job wherever he found them and terrorizing the economy.

He's attempted to kill drilling jobs with his oil drilling moratorium. He's killed jobs at tanning salons by raising new taxes on them. He's trying to limit how many fish fisherman can catch and therefore reduce the profits the fishermen get. And those are just a few examples of what he's done to ruin this economy.

Back when he was running for President, Obama made another incredibly stupid remark, this one about wanting trickle-up economics. It's been a while since I took economics and heaven knows I'm no businesswoman, but even I know a dumb idea when I hear it. That dumb statement doesn't just defy economics, it also defies gravity.

In nature, when water flows down from a lake, it waters everything on the way down. It never trickles back up to where it came from. And the same principle works in economics. (Which I'm going to go out on a limb and assume Obama failed.) Rich people have money, and when they're not running scared that the government will take their money away from them, they invest it in the stock market. This gives companies more money which allows them to expand and hire more people. As money trickles down it helps everyone. It can't trickle up; poor people don't invest in the economy enough to make a difference.

So thanks for nothing Obama. You did NOT ever get that car back out of the ditch, you got it stuck in there deeper, and you're happy about it because it lets you push your dumb socialist agenda.

It's time to revoke Obama's licence. November 2012 can't come fast enough.

I'm Still with Israel

Guess what's ba-ack? The pro-Israel banner. 'Cause I still support Israel.

In case you missed the news, a bunch of "peace activists" tried to run a blockade in Gaza. IMAO put it best when they said these are "the sort of peace activist who want nothing more than war." Because that's exactly the kind of peace activist that tried to get into Gaza.

All sorts of things have come out about this flotilla attack. Hillary Clinton had to go open her big mouth:



"We support, in the strongest terms, the security council's call for a prompt, impartial, credible, and transparent investigation."

From the U.N.? Don't make me laugh, lady. You and I both know that the U.N. hates Israel and can't do jack squat right.

"We support an Israeli investigation that meets those criteria."

Boy, I wish I could lie like that without my conscious driving me up a wall. Maybe it's a bit early to be calling her words a lie, but I just this feeling that I'm gonna be right. We'll deal with Gaza here in a minute.

(Palestinian authority, what Palestinian authority? Yes I know I'm supposed to keep going but I couldn't help that one.)

One more for good measure:

"Ultimately the solution to this conflict must be found through an agreement based on a two-state solution negotiated between the parties."

Okay. My friend Ron Mossad had a lovely post on the two-state solution so I won't deal with it here. You can go here if you're interested in more on that. Okay, back to the point.

So Mrs. Clinton wants a fair investigation. I wonder, will that investigation include this video:



For the first few seconds of this video you can some soldiers boarding the boat. Then you see a "Peace activist" tossing a rock at a soldier. And the subtitles take care of the rest.

Wow. That's about the same kind of peace I expected from the religion of Islam - oh wait....

Gateway Pundit, through YNet News adds this statement from the soldier who was thrown over the side of the ship:

R. was the soldier who was thrown from the deck, as shown in the footage distributed by the IDF. "I was in front of a number of people with knives and clubs. I cocked my weapon when I saw that one was coming towards me with a knife drawn and I fired once. Then another 20 people came at me from all directions and threw me down to the deck below."

"Then I felt a stabbing in my stomach. It was a knife. I got the knife out, then somehow got down to the lower deck where there were more people. This was when the soldiers had got control of all the boat except the lower deck. Me and another soldier managed to get to the deck, and we jumped into the water, from where our forces collected us. Another soldier who was beaten hard lost consciousness. Other soldiers covered him until we managed to get him out."

Hmm. That doesn't sound so peaceful to me.

Obama came out and condemned Israel. Then again, they did put his friends in danger (Not that that's an excuse):

Former Weather Underground leaders William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, as well as Code Pink founder Jodie Evans, helped organize the Free Gaza Movement, which launched the six-ship flotilla from Turkey to Israel that ended in a violent clash with Israeli Defense Forces, BigGovernment.com reported.

... This wasn’t the first time that the Free Gaza Movement, whose board of directors include well-known leftists Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein, sent vessels to Gaza to deliberately provoke a reaction from Israel.

... And if there’s any doubt that this was a political set-up instead of a humanitarian mission, the fact that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez promised to join a future convoy should dispel any doubts.

Well isn't that some interesting food for thought. So now that we know this was set up and now that we know that those peace activists weren't peace activists - unless stabbing someone in the stomach is now 'peaceful' - who's fault is it now?

Here's a hint: not Israel.

__________________________________
Further reading:

Ron Mossad: 10 Dead as Israeli forces storm Gaza Freedom Flotilla
Ron Mossad: More info on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
Gateway Pundit: Netanyahu: This was no Love Boat
And for the people who think that this incident took place in 'International Waters': Click here.

News Blurbs & a New Poster

First I have some news blurbs for you guys, then I want to talk about my new sidebar poster. Yep, that's I call my Pro-Israel, Let Freedom R.I.P., Fairness Doctrine, and Project 2,996 posters.

And now I have a new one, but news first.


Apple is a Democrat Organization

Maybe they think that if they kiss up to Obama he won't run them out of the country with tax hikes.

I call that 'delusional.' And I'm so glad I don't have an iPod. From Gateway Pundit:

Republican Ari David ... sent this today. The Republican candidate running against far left socialist Henry Waxman is being denied his free speech by Apple Computer , Inc. Apple officials notified Ari David that they were rejecting his submission for an app. They told his team that they were doing so on the grounds that they deemed the content in the app was defamatory against Henry Waxman.

By 'defamatory' they mean "told the complete unvarnished truth." You can see the list of unvarnished truths at GP's blog; I'm not going to relist everything.


This isn't the first time Apple has done something like this. But it does reinforce my happiness that my my mp3 is not an iPod.



Barack Obama Sinks Low... Again


This would be news if it wasn't, what, the 18,000th time? I stopped counting a year ago. Obama proves how stupid and delusional he is.

If you're drinking anything while reading this, you need to swallow and set your cup down before continuing, okay?

Good. Here's the headline: Obama Says Daniel Pearl's Beheading Captured World's Imagination.

Did you go off teleprompter again, Barack? Beheadings are NOT fuel for the imagination. They are sick and wrong!

That’s crazy sick. Obama told reporters yesterday that the video of Islamic radicals sawing off a Daniel Pearl’s head with a butter knife “capured the world’s imagination.”

“Obviously, the loss of Daniel Pearl was one of those moments that captured the world’s imagination because it reminded us of how valuable a free press is.”

No, Barack. It was horrifying.

And… It had nothing to do with freedom of the press. They beheaded Daniel Pearl because he was an American and a Jew. They beheaded Daniel Pearl because they were Islamic radicals. Something you have not yet figured out.

Obama astonishes me. Just when you think he can't get lower, he does. Cutting someone's head off with a butter knife. I might need to throw up now.

And, the third news story: Arizona Tells Los Angeles to Shove Off

Okay, so maybe they didn't quite say it like that, but still. This brings a tear to my eye. A happy tear. Thank heaven some people -and states - are standing up for liberty. The letter I'm about to cross-post here comes from a Representative of the Arizona Corporation Commission, Gary Pierce, and was sent to the mayor of Los Angeles.

Dear Mayor Villaraigosa,

I was dismayed to learn that the Los Angeles City Council voted to boycott Arizona and Arizona-based companies — a vote you strongly supported — to show opposition to SB 1070 (Support our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act).

You explained your support of the boycott as follows: “While we recognize that as neighbors, we share resources and ties with the State of Arizona that may be difficult to sever, our goal is not to hurt the local economy of Los Angeles, but to impact the economy of Arizona. Our intent is to use our dollars — or the withholding of our dollars — to send a message.” (emphasis added)

I received your message; please receive mine. As a state-wide elected member of the Arizona Corporation Commission overseeing Arizona’s electric and water utilities, I too am keenly aware of the “resources and ties” we share with the City of Los Angeles. In fact, approximately twenty-five percent of the electricity consumed in Los Angeles is generated by power plants in Arizona.

If an economic boycott is truly what you desire, I will be happy to encourage Arizona utilities to renegotiate your power agreements so Los Angeles no longer receives any power from Arizona-based generation. I am confident that Arizona’s utilities would be happy to take those electrons off your hands. If, however, you find that the City Council lacks the strength of its convictions to turn off the lights in Los Angeles and boycott Arizona power, please reconsider the wisdom of attempting to harm Arizona’s economy.

People of goodwill can disagree over the merits of SB 1070. A state-wide economic boycott of Arizona is not a message sent in goodwill.

Sincerely,

Commissioner Gary Pierce

This guy is a hero. Well done, sir, well done.

And on that note, allow me to unveil my new Arizona Rocks! poster. Which, because I now love Arizona, has been shamelessly linked to an Arizona travel site, just to spite liberals.

It's definitely the most flamboyant of my sidebar posters, that's for sure. And I hope no one in Arizona is to mad at me for using part of their flag for the background, but I like how it looks like that. Some of the colors might have to be changed, and I'm sure it'll get moved around a few more times, but I'll deal with that later.

The Meaning of 'Transparency' Was Lost in Translation

You know, when the Democrats (Which one was it? Obama about the White House or Pelosi about the House? Either way it doesn't matter.) promised to have the most transparent administration ever, I thought they meant that literally, like, oh, for example, with no sneaking around behind closed doors trying to hide what they're doing.

Well, this wasn't what I was thinking when I thought of transparency:

Transparency like you’ve never seen before

Today marks a major milestone in government transparency -- and an important lesson in the unintended consequences of such vigorous disclosure.

We previously announced that the White House in December of this year would -- for the first time in history -- begin posting all White House visitor records under the terms of our new voluntary disclosure policy. As part of that initiative, we also offered to look back at the records created before the announcement of the policy and answer specific requests for visitor records created earlier in the year.

So far we’ve processed 110 disclosure requests from September that yielded nearly 500 visitor records. All of these are now available on the White House website in accessible, searchable format for anyone to browse or download. Consistent with our earlier announcement that we will only release records 90 days or older, this first batch covers the period of time between January 20, 2009 to July 31, 2009. Future batches will be posted on an ongoing basis.

This is what you mean by transparency? Posting visitor records on the Internet? Are you freaking kidding me? When you said 'the most transparent administration eva,' most of us thought you were going to honest about what you doing up there on the hill. Not that you would post White House visitor records online.

I guess the meaning of 'transparency was lost in translation.

THE HECK WITH GENDER AND RACE!!!!

I promised screaming if it ever came down to this. Well, it's come to this. Michelle Malkin reports about an op-ed piece in the Seattle Times which raves:

"Sotomayor's nomination is historic also because she is living successfully with diabetes."

I'm going to show you some really tasty bits from the pile of manure. Let me tell you something else before we begin: as a type 1 diabetic, I. Am. Pissed.

The nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has made diabetes a factor in the confirmation process. Diagnosed at age 8, she is the first nominee to have the disease, and the position's life tenure has raised valid questions about her health while also giving her critics an opening.

Except no one gives a rip about her diabetes. Except the idiots who wrote this, and now me because they brought it up. What we give a rip about is the fact this woman has a axe to grind and she's taking it to court with her.

"I believe that that a wise Latina woman, in the riches of her experience, would come to better conclusion then a white man who hasn't lived that life."

If that's not word for word, it's pretty dang close. Any 'white man' who said it would have that would have been run out of town in a hurry. Why is this witch given a free ride because of her skin color?

Type 1 diabetes is a disorder in which the immune system destroys the body's insulin-producing beta cells. (The more common form of diabetes, type 2, is associated with weight gain and aging.) No one is declaring victory over diabetes, which is increasing at epidemic rates and imposes huge burdens on patients, their families and the entire health-care system.

But Judge Sotomayor's nomination should be given its historic due. If a Latina would have never been considered for the highest court 40 years ago or even 20 years ago, neither would have a person with diabetes. Workplace discrimination was common; social stigmas flourished; misperceptions were the norm.

Until insulin's discovery in 1922, there was no effective treatment. Your diagnosis was your death sentence. Insulin, however, allowed patients to live by the grace of this miracle drug — making them, as Dr. Joslin said, "the explorers of uncharted seas." But those waters were hardly calm.

When you're done with your hero worship, I'd like to have a word with you. Tell me, oh wise ones, what exactly constitutes living successfully with diabetes? Good blood sugars, perhaps? Remember, none of us have perfect blood sugars all the time, not even her, I would dare to say. Is it because she has an insulin pump? A fancy blood glucose meter? How is this historic? How is she successful? Pray tell, oh wise ones, so poor stupid diabetics like me may follow in her wise example.

Make no mistake, good diabetes care requires financial resources, a qualified health-care team and personal commitment. Too many patients still fall short of their goal and our health-care system is far from perfect. But our improved tools are paying dividends. In a typical half-day clinic at the University of Washington Diabetes Care Center, nine or 10 patients collectively can boast of more than 300 years of diabetes duration. Patients with what was once called "juvenile diabetes" are now Medicare age.

We won't predict what type of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor will be, but we do know that her health care will be guided by tools and technology that none of us have yet imagined.

You don't have to predict. Us Conservatives have been doing that for awhile now. She can be summed up in one word: racist.

We started off in this op-ed with awe and wonder that this diabetic had been nominated for the Supreme Court, and now we get a lecture on diabetes.

Either way, I'm still upset. She's incompetent, preferring to judge based on skin color rather than on the merits of an actual case. That will only lead to trouble if this woman is confirmed. Count on it.

And don't you dare try and play on diabetes for sympathy again.

See Also: What Ricci Says About Sotomayor - And Obama

Muslims: "Don't Talk To Us, Dhimmis!"

Well, I'm back from my vacation, and look who never takes a day off: The Religion of Purported Peace. Do these people ever stop whining? Seriously...

More from the Religion of Peace Perpetual Outrage.

First, an update. You remember the guy who decided to sue because he had to cook pork? Well, I have great news. He lost.

A Muslim chef who accused the Metropolitan Police of religious discrimination when told he must handle pork has lost his tribunal case.

Hasanali Khoja was told he would be expected to handle pork products at his new job at the Empress State Building in Earls Court, west London.

The 60-year-old from Edgware, north-west London, also said racist gestures were made to him when he complained.

The force was it was "pleased" at the tribunal's decision.

Mr Khoja said earlier he was "stressed and humiliated" at the prospect of handling pork products, which Islam considers to be unclean.

He said even wearing gloves or using tongs to cook would not protect him from the risk of splashes.

The catering manager had also claimed that he was the victim of racism by an official when he went to discuss his situation.

Jihad Watch is right: and exactly what race is Islam again?

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said: "We are pleased to have been cleared of allegations of discrimination on the basis of religion or belief against Mr Khoja."

She added: "Mr Khoja remains a valued member of staff."

Two words for you, lady: Fire him.

Now, the Muslims feel insulted. Again:

When the landlady of my Toronto apartment building said an outraged neighbour had filed a complaint about me over an apparently inappropriate hallway interaction with his wife, my mind raced through the countless conversations I've had with fellow tenants, none of which seemed a possible source of offence.

It turns out, it wasn't a salacious transaction that had caused the complaint, but rather a neighbourly and -- to me -- entirely forgettable greeting, little more than a brief "good morning" as I passed my neighbours on the way to work.

Still, it was enough of an affront for the man -- once a doctor somewhere in the Middle East, my landlady clarified -- to feel I had broken a cultural taboo. The incident started an awkward feud which has involved warnings not to repeat my indiscretion and one face-to-face shouting match, which included allusions to my impending death.

I expect the battle will wage on, as we appear to be stuck at an impasse.

His Muslim upbringing has ingrained in him a sense of entitlement to demand I not speak directly to his wife; and my prairie upbringing has ingrained in me a duty to strive for polite cohesion with my neighbours.

My landlady, who has handled the complaint with tittering trepidation, hasn't helped dispel the friction. She has told me to adhere to the demands because the man "could be dangerous," directing me to literally turn my back to the couple as they pass, never make eye contact and never hold the elevator for them, no matter what.

...Life among neighbours has become increasingly complicated by multiculturalism, in this case making even the most affable salutation or good Samaritan gesture a practice in walking on eggshells. But in trying to adapt to a patchwork of often conflicting cultures, has civility become the casualty of accommodation?

Of course, denying me the right to greet a woman in our shared hallway fails to measure up to reported conflicts that have caused a culture clash, such as Canada's reaction to a recent Afghan law allowing some husbands to withhold food until their wives agree to sex, or the case of a Toronto-area father and son accused of killing a daughter who refused to wear a hijab at school.

....The alternative to this is to live amongst strangers in an icy standoff, fearful that the slightest attempt at community might be viewed as an affront. The alternative is to abandon prairie law, turn your back and close your eyes. And that sounds terrible.

All you have to do to set off Muslims is say hello on your way to work.

Nice.

From the Stupid Files: About Those Photos...

On the one hand, I'm torn. I want Obama to release those photos so everyone can see just what goes on back at Gitmo and therefore kill the liberal's main screaming point: "Torture! Torture!"

On the other hand, as soon as those are released, countries that actually engage in torture (For liberals, I mean "Not America") are going to laugh until they cry.

The thing is that what goes on at Gitmo... do you realize people over on FanFiction.Net can write stories that involve more torture and still never go above a T rating?

ABC News reports:

President Obama defended his decision to fight the release of photos showing detainee abuse, saying it would only put American troops in harms way and create a backlash against Americans.

Backlash against Americans, or against his administration? I tend to think it's the latter.

"The most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger," the president said before departing on his trip to Arizona. "Moreover, I fear the publication of these photos may only have a chilling effect on future investigations of detainee abuse."

How can you inflame anti-American opinion anymore than it already is? Heck, even liberals hate this country. The last free outpost in the world, and the biggest threat is actually on the inside.

Oh, and Barry? Muslims have always hated us. You're fighting a losing battle.

"I want to emphasize that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib," Obama said. "It's therefore my belief that the publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals."

I think I missed the Abu Ghraib thing, so I went out and looked it up. Ah, yes, Abu Ghraib. We were heaven help us, we actually engaged in torture. Real torture. We were actually playing by the Muslim's rules that time. (And you know liberals can't stand that!)

Now, in case you're wondering what kind of atrocities go on at Gitmo, Ann Coulter has the explanation:

Without any pretense of an argument, which liberals are neurologically incapable of, the mainstream media are now asserting that our wussy interrogation techniques at Guantanamo constituted "torture" and have irreparably harmed America's image abroad.

Only the second of those alleged facts is true: The president's release of the Department of Justice interrogation memos undoubtedly hurt America's image abroad, as we are snickered at in capitals around the world, where they know what real torture is. The Arabs surely view these memos as a pack of lies. What about the pills Americans have to turn us gay?

The techniques used against the most stalwart al-Qaida members, such as Abu Zubaydah, included one terrifying procedure referred to as "the attention grasp." As described in horrifying detail in the Justice Department memo, the "attention grasp" consisted of: "(G)rasping the individual with both hands, one hand on each side of the collar opening, in a controlled and quick motion. In the same motion as the grasp, the individual is drawn toward the interrogator."

The end.

This is what liberals are screaming about. This is insane.

But wait - it gets worse.

And that's not all! As the torments were gradually increased, next up the interrogation ladder came "walling." This involves pushing the terrorist against a flexible wall, during which his "head and neck are supported with a rolled hood or towel that provides a C-collar effect to prevent whiplash."

People pay to have a lot rougher stuff done to them at Six Flags Great Adventure. Indeed, with plastic walls and soft neck collars, "walling" may be the world's first method of "torture" in which all the implements were made by Fisher-Price.

As the memo darkly notes, walling doesn't cause any pain, but is supposed to induce terror by making a "loud noise": "(T)he false wall is in part constructed to create a loud sound when the individual hits it, which will further shock and surprise." (!!!)

Those of you who are squeamish, turn back now. Even Miss Coulter felt the irony:

If you need a few minutes to compose yourself after being subjected to that horror, feel free to take a break from reading now. Sometimes a cold compress on the forehead is helpful, but don't let it drip or you might end up waterboarding yourself.

Indeed. Now, for the continuing inhumane torture methods:

I will spare you the gruesome details of the CIA's other comical interrogation techniques and leap directly to the penultimate "torture" in their arsenal: the caterpillar.

In this unspeakable brutality, a harmless caterpillar is placed in the terrorist's cell. Justice Department lawyers expressly denied the interrogators' request to trick the terrorist into believing the caterpillar was a "stinging insect."

Human rights groups have variously described being trapped in a cell with a live caterpillar as "brutal," "soul-wrenching" and, of course, "adorable."

Good heavens, no! Not a caterpillar!!

What kind of caterpillar? A Monarch? Swallowtail? Cabbage White? Sweetheart Underwing? That's a big moth, so it might have a big caterpillar. Maybe one from inside an apple?
If it had to be a caterpillar, couldn't it have at least been one from a cercropia moth? At least that one looks moderately scary. But I digress.

There's My Two Cents has a bit more info on the waterboarding that liberals are screaming about.

...I don't recall ever seeing this procedure in such detail before, though I've read about it any number of times. It's amazing to watch in action, don't you think? No actual danger being posed to the person, but almost instant capitulation.

Torture: "the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty"

Is this torture? No way. Anyone who thinks this is torture has their eyes closed to what real torture is. Slicing and dicing body parts is torture. Electrical shocks, crushing of fingers, and permanent physical damage is torture. Forcing someone to watch while their spouse or child is raped and cut apart is torture. Those are the things that our enemies do (it's well documented, if you don't believe me).

We tip the guy down and pour little bit of water up his nose.

Waterboarding is not torture because there is no permanent physical damage, nor is there any mental anguish [radical Islamic terrorists strive for and worship death, so there is no anguish found in the panic reaction they talked about in this video]. Waterboarding is a phenomenally effective way to get information out of captives quickly without harming them. Our own soldiers go through it as part of their training.

Follow the link to watch the video he's talking about.

I think we can safely say that Crazyville - located in Washington D.C., in case you wanna visit - has once again taken stupid to a whole new level.

I looked at the Abu Ghraib photos, okay? "Oh no! Our eeeevilll soldiers stripped someone! They threatened them with dogs!" Sorry 'bout that. Next time, we'll make sure the soldiers use actual methods of torture, you know, knives, whips, chains, that sort of thing.

Which, by the way, that stuff does not happen at Gitmo. Liberals are running around screaming that the sky is falling when they've only been bonked on the head by a tiny, half-developed acorn. If there's anything about this country that deserves scorn, well, let's just say it's not our soldiers or Gitmo.

I think this video kind of puts it in perspective, even if the ending is kind of weird.



Compared to what other countries do to their prisoners, liberals have NOTHING to be complaining about.

Muslims: "We Deserve Special Treatment!"

You're never gonna believe this. Wait, maybe you will. The latest from the religion of...

...You know, just forget it. Read:

A Muslim chef is suing Britain’s largest police force, claiming he suffered religious discrimination because he was expected to cook bacon and pork sausages for breakfast.

Hasanali Khoja is due to put his case against the Metropolitan Police to an employment tribunal, which starts a 10-day hearing in London tomorrow.

The case has caused outrage in the British press and has been seized on by far right political parties, being branded “the madness of multiculturalism” by the British National Party.

Nice to see someone has some sense. That's what this is: madness.

Mr Khoja, 60, whose claim is being backed by both the Association of Muslim Police and the National Black Police Association, says he was refused permission not to handle pork when he took a job as catering manager at a police headquarters in west London.

Instead, he said his supervisor suggested he wear gloves when preparing a “999 breakfast” – a policeman’s favourite that includes bacon, pork sausages and black pudding, which is made from pigs’ blood.

“I felt very unhappy about it. I was very upset and angry because it is not permissible in my religion,” said Mr Khoja, who is an adviser on Muslim food issues on the government’s Foods Standards Agency.

“I was threatened that management would sack me if I did not follow instructions. But I never enrolled to cook pork. I refused to do it. I never did it and I never would.

“I had a letter from the human resources department saying that I would not be required to cook any pork. But this was not exactly what I wanted as a guarantee.

“The Met has shown no sensitivity towards my religion. Their response has been ill-thought and discriminatory.”

Wow. No sensitivity. The religion of Islam, reaping what it sows.

Say it with me: "Karma."

“My original contract did not include any kind of cooking. I was hired as a senior catering manager,” he said. “I protested at the move [to west London] and at having to cook pork.

“I was placed on paid, special leave for a year. No Muslim in my position should have to face such harassment.”

What the? How is that harassment? I woulda fired ya. Paid leave is not harassment.

However, his plight has generated little sympathy in the mainstream of British society. Richard Littlejohn, a columnist for the Daily Mail, wrote: “There are some stories which are so preposterous on so many levels that it is difficult to know where to start.

Amen.

“Whoever heard of a chef being excused pork? Naturally, he now wants a large sum of money by way of compensation. The Met has a long and undistinguished record of grovelling to this kind of opportunist bullying.

“What astonishes me is that he ever applied for a job cooking for policemen in the first place. What, precisely, did he think they serve up in a police canteen – vegetarian samosas?

“If he had a fundamental objection [to cooking pork], he should go and work somewhere else. Hiring a chef who won’t cook sausages to work in a police canteen is like hiring a lifeguard who can’t swim.

“Typically, I would imagine, the police were so terrified of being accused of ‘racism’ that they took him on regardless.”

Unfortunately, that's probably true.

But Khalid Sofi, Mr Khoja’s lawyer, insisted there was “an important issue of principle at stake” in the case, with ramifications for the police and wider society in Britain.

“He has genuine and strong religious beliefs and expects that they will be accommodated,” he said. “’The Met is a very large organisation and could easily have met his demands.

Yeah, that would be nice, IF Islam tolerated other religious beliefs, which it does not. Now before you start screaming "Racist" you do realize it's illegal to carry a Bible in Saudi Arabi, right? Some real tolerance goin' on right there.

I've heard a few stupid lawsuits but boy, this takes the cake. The majority ought to kowtow to the minority. That's what this idiot lawyer is saying when he says the Met could have met his client's demands. It COULD have, but that would mean making the majority (the organization) give up pork for the minority (this idiot).

“Mr Khoja’s case raises the general question of the Met accommodating the needs of the Muslim community at a time when there is a lack of confidence in the police among Muslims.

“We are confident that we have a very good claim. Religious discrimination law obliges employers if possible to accommodate genuine religious needs.

“This case goes in to wider issues of diversity and I think it raises significant issues in the current climate.”

Oh, it raises some issues alright. I just don't think they're ones you want raised.

A spokesman for the National Black Police Association said: “It was suggested that he could wear gloves to cook bacon and sausages. This, of course, was no good because it is the principle involved and not about just handling the meat.

“It was all very, very nasty. They were telling him to do something that was against his faith.”

How can I put this...

GET A DIFFERENT JOB!!

Good grief, this is almost worse then the woman who sued McDonald's 'cause she burned herself on hot coffee. Now who in defense of the Majority is going to sue Mr. Khoja, his lawyer, the Association of Muslim police, and the National Black Police Association?

Here's hoping the judge throws this case out of court.

Muslims: "Americans Are Not Human Beings,"

The Religion of Peace Perpetual Outrage is back at it. Hat tip Gateway Pundit.

Here: "Americans Are Not Human Beings."

At Friday prayers on May 1, 2009, Iranian Ayatollah Khatami criticized Obama's calls for talks and declared that Americans are not human beings... And, "Death to America."

MEMRI reported, via ROP:

In his Friday, May 1, 2009 sermon at the Tehran University campus, Interim Tehran Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami criticized
Washington for its call for talks with Tehran, saying, "The Iranian nation is the same nation that put all options of (former U.S. President George W.) Bush under table and into history's dustbin. (U.S. President Barack) Obama is now toeing Bush's line regarding Iran."

"Arab World Must Realize That Should Israel Gain Power, It Would Not Hesitate to Occupy Other Countries in the Region"

Khatami, an Iranian Assembly of Experts member, also encouraged the Arab world to cut ties with Israel, warned certain Arab leaders over their efforts to maintain close relations with it, and said that the Arab world must realize that should Israel gain power, it would not hesitate to occupy other countries in the region.

"'If America Was A Human Being, We Would Talk With It' - But You Are Not Human Beings, And This is the Same Nation It Was 30 Years Ago... And [Therefore] Say: 'Death to America!'"

In further comments on U.S.-Iran relations, Khatami said: "Praise to the Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Revolution in
Iran] who said, 'If America was a human being, we would talk with it' -but you are not human beings, and this is the same nation it was 30 yearsago... and [therefore] say: 'Death to America!'"

Nice. Real nice. What's also nice is this idiot has the grammar of of a four year old, but I digress. You know how Muslims take comments against their religion? That's about how I take it when people slur my country.

Oh, by the way Stupid, I hate to give away the game here, but Israel has nukes. They are stronger than you. And - what's this? They're staying in their own country! Imagine that.

Muslims: "We're insulted!"

Surprise, surprise. Hat tip Jihad Watch.

From Reuter's:

Jordanian Islamist leaders on Thursday condemned Pope Benedict's visit to the Middle East, saying it was provocative because he has not apologized for offending comments implying Islam was violent and irrational.

They said the pope, who arrives in Jordan on Friday on the first leg of a tour including Israel and the Palestinian territories, still owed them an apology for hinting Islam was violent and irrational in a 2006 speech in Regensburg.

Islam? Violent and irrational? Couldn't be.

Jordan's Roman Catholic Church urged Islamists on Wednesday to welcome the pope despite their earlier criticism of his visit. A senior Amman official acknowledged some discontent but said the government would warmly welcome Benedict.

"The present Vatican pope is the one who issued severe insults to Islam and did not offer any apology to the Muslims," Zaki Bani Rusheid, head of the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest mainstream Islamist party, told Reuters.

"Ignoring Muslim sentiments will only block the healing of wounds his statements caused," said another Islamist figure, Jamil Abu Baker.

Yeah. Too bad Muslim sentiments are violent and irrational. Cry me a river.

For many Arabs in the region, the pope's stated mission of peace and reconciliation is futile without a sufficient gesture to Palestinian suffering under Israeli occupation.

This was even more pressing in Jordan, a country where a large portion of its 5.6 million are of Palestinian origin, they or their parents having been expelled or fled to Jordan in the fighting that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948.

"It's the same pope who apologized to the Jews about the Holocaust and now comes to the region but says nothing about the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe)," Bani Rusheid added. Arabs call Israel's creation the "Nakba" (catastrophe).

How are Palestinians suffering under Israel? I demand this be explained. The only ones suffering are the Jews themselves, you know, what with all those "peaceful" Muslims shooting rockets into their state.

And that last line: "Arabs call Israel's Creation the 'Nakba' (catastrophe). Isn't that - dare I say it - a little irrational? I tend to think it is.

Not all Muslims are violent, but you wouldn't know that from the way the rest of the Muslims act. It's not a lie to call the religion of Islam violent and irrational because they are at least violent, if not irrational. It's a lie - that the American media has been actively perpetrating - to call Islam a religion of peace, which it is not.

For doubters, here's a few examples from the religion of peace:

Religion of PEACE
Religion of PEACE
Religion of PEACE
Religion of PEACE
Religion of PEACE
Religion of PEACE
Religion of PEACE
Religion of PEACE
Religion of PEACE
Religion of PEACE
Religion of PEACE
Religion of PEACE
Religion of PEACE, and more PEACE
Yes, it's hard to miss the PEACE

I'm sorry, but from where I'm sitting, the moniker just doesn't match the facts.

The religion of peace feels insulted. Again.

Surprise, surprise.

I Have Bad News About Swine Flu... Updated! Tell Me, is W.H.O. an Extension of the U.N.?

By now, it's likely that everyone in America has heard about the fact that Mexico has several hundred cases of swine flu, some of which have resulted in death. However, please take this moment to note that although there have been a few reported cases of swine flu in America, only one person, a two year old, has died from it.

Yes, you read that correctly. At the time I write this, only one person in the whole country has died from this disease. From the way the media talks, though, every other person in America has it, or, if they don't, then the pandemic's about to spread. Well, let's get to the root of this problem. From UK Reuters:

Barely 100 days in office, President Barack Obama is facing his first domestic emergency with the outbreak of swine flu and is seeing yet again how fresh challenges can erupt from the unlikeliest of places.

In the space of a month, he has had to deal with a North Korean missile launch and a hostage drama involving Somali pirates half a world away.

Um, no. Barack Obama did not do anything about North Korea, AT ALL (see Is Korean/American History Repeating Itself), nor did he do anything about the Somalian pirates, AT ALL (see I Love SEALs @ There's My Two Cents.)

But alas, those are different rants, for another time. I digress:

And now, from Mexico, comes a new flu that has killed up to 149 people south of the U.S. border but has not had the same deadly force in the United States, sickening at least 65.

If there is any clear tendency he has demonstrated in his response to all of these challenges, it is that he has responded to all of them with an abundance of caution.

He denounced the missile launch as provocative but made no sudden moves. The Somali pirate crisis played out over four days before U.S. snipers killed three pirates and freed the hostage American freighter captain.

In the case of this swine flu, Obama has walked a fine line, appearing concerned but trying not to generate panic among Americans already on edge from the weak U.S. economy.

"This is obviously a cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert. But it is not a cause for alarm," Obama said on Monday.

Really, Barry? Then would you please tell the media to shut up? They way they talk, we're on the verge of a pandemic.

...[Janet] Napolitano said the number of confirmed swine flu cases is likely to rise in the next few days, but that "we are confident in the efforts underway across the federal government and across state and local governments to keep Americans safe and healthy."

Good heavens, not again. Much like with the Korean/American History, history has popped up with some rather interesting notes. From capitalcentury.com:

On the cold afternoon of February 5, 1976, an Army recruit told his drill instructor at Fort Dix that he felt tired and weak but not sick enough to see military medics or skip a big training hike.

Within 24 hours, 19-year-old Pvt. David Lewis of Ashley Falls, Mass., was dead, killed by an influenza not seen since the plague of 1918-19, which took 500,000 American lives and 20 million worldwide.

Two weeks after the recruit's death, health officials disclosed to America that something called "swine flu" had killed Lewis and hospitalized four of his fellow soldiers at the Army base in Burlington County.

The ominous name of the flu alone was enough to touch off civilian fear of an epidemic. And government doctors knew from tests hastily conducted at Dix after Lewis' death that 500 soldiers had caught swine flu without falling ill.

Any flu able to reach that many people so fast was capable of becoming another worldwide plague, the doctors warned, raising these questions:

Does America mobilize for mass inoculations in time to have everybody ready for the next flu season? Or should the country wait to see if the new virus would, as they often do, get stronger to hit harder in the second year?

Thus was born what would become known to some medical historians as a fiasco and to others as perhaps the finest hour of America's public health bureaucracy.

No, I read the article, and it was mostly a fiasco. Only David Lewis died from the swine flu back in 1976, but the government decided to get everyone in America immunized against the dreaded disease.

Weeks after Lewis died, doctors from the Centers for Disease Control and other federal public health officials were meeting in Washington, trying to decide if they should recommend the government start a costly program of mass inoculations.

One doc later told the authors of "The Epidemic that Never Was" that he and others in on the meetings realized there was "nothing in this for the CDC except trouble," especially because a decision had to be made fast to get the immunizations manufactured by the fall.

The whole thing was a lose-lose situation, as doctors faced criticism if the vaccine wasn't ready, but if they immunized everyone and the pandemic didn't come, they would still be criticized. But still, they started the immunizations. Then, things kind of went wrong...

Within days, however, several people who had taken the shot fell seriously ill. On Oct. 12, three elderly people in the Pittsburgh area suffered heart attacks and died within hours of getting the shot, which led to suspension of the program in Pennsylvania.

The effects of the vaccine were as bad as the flu. In fact, more people died from the vaccine then died from the flu.

On Dec. 16, increasingly concerned about reports of the vaccine touching off neurological problems, especially rare Guillain-Barre syndrome, the government suspended the program, having inoculated 40 million people for a flu that never came.

No pandemic, no massive chaos, just a bad virus and horrific hemorrhaging of taxpayer's money.

The question now is, Will history repeat itself? Obama is already asking for $1.5 billion dollars to fight the swine flu. If he decides to force everyone to get inoculated, well, we're gonna have some trouble.

Yes, swine flu does sound very sinister. But, like I said at the beginning of this post, only one person of the billions in America has died from it. That doesn't make the death any less important, but it should put things in perspective. Here's an interesting note from WebMD:

If your doctor suspects swine flu, he or she would be able to write you a prescription for Tamiflu or Relenza. Those drugs may not be required; U.S. swine flu patients have made a full recovery without it.

I don't know -yet- if all this hype will have been about nothing, but Rahm Emmanuel said "Never waste a good crisis," so I have some suspicions.

No one can explain why people in Mexico have died and people in America have done alright; it could be alot of things. But I for one am sick to death of this fear mongering. Yes, I don't know whether or no this will get worse. But at the moment, I do know two things:

1) 68 people infected is by no means a epidemic.
2) The fear mongering is making this whole thing out to be worse than it actually is.

So please, until we have about 1 million people in the country affected by this sickness, can we please not run around screaming that the sky is falling?

(Postscript: I don't know if there's a vaccination against this round of swine flu. Back in 1976 there was a vaccine, but WebMD has indicated there is not a vaccine. It's probable that after the fiasco with the first swine flu vaccine, they're not giving it out again, but I don't really know.)

Begun 4-28-09
Completed 4-29-09
______________________________________________________

Update! 4-30-09

Is the World Health Organization an extension of the U.N? Seriously. This is the kind of stupidity I would expect from the United Nations.

There are, I believe, 150 cases of swine flu outside Mexico. Actually, according to one website I was looking at, it's 148, but still basically 150 cases in nine different countries.

So what does W.H.O. decide to do? Stop just short of declaring a pandemic. The Associated Press reports:

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has delivered a strong signal that a swine flu pandemic is imminent by increasing its alert level to five.

The alert phase is characterised by human-to-human transmission of the virus into at least two countries, and indicates that the time to finalise planned mitigation measures is short.

They're about ready to declare a pandemic based on 148 cases of flu outside Mexico? 148? You've gotta be kidding me. As for human-to-human trasmisson, that's also how normal flu spreads, a cold spreads, chicken pox spreads, I could probably come up with a list, given enough time, of diseases that spread through human to human contact.

How is this deserving of an almost pandemic? The cases in other countries, and the death here in the U.S. happened because the people involved had recently visited Mexico.

Good grief.

I'm a Terrorist!

Who'da thunk?

Anyway, here's the deal. The Department of Homeland Security has issued a report calling all sane, rational, patriotic Americans, in effect, terrorists. If you are against any of the following things, you are a now a right-wing extremist (List from Bare Naked Islam):

The Report specifically mentions the following political beliefs that law enforcement should use to determine whether someone is a “rightwing extremist”:

-Opposes restrictions on firearms
-Opposes lax immigration
-Opposes the policies of President Obama regarding immigration, citizenship and the
expansion of social programs
-Opposes continuation of free trade agreements
-Opposes same-sex marriage
-Has paranoia of foreign regimes
-Fear of Communist regimes
-Opposes one world government
-Bemoans the decline of U.S. stature in the world.
-Upset with loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs to China and India
-. . . and the list goes on

Do you see this? Do you see this? These people have violated almost every aspect of the U.S. Constitution. Right off the bat I can pick off that it violates the first and second amendments.

I fit most of the things on this list, therefore I am, if not a terrorist, at least a right-wing extremist. (I know this is the liberals doings. Barack Obama is a left-wing extremist, and they haven't issued a memorandum against him.)

Let's look at that list again:

[X] Opposes restrictions on firearms

Check.

[X] Opposes lax immigration

Check.

[X] [X] Opposes the policies of President Obama regarding immigration, citizenship and the expansion of social programs

Double check.

-Opposes continuation of free trade agreements

I don't know what that means, but if it's what I think it is (or if it involves any Communist country in any way), I'm against it.

[X] Opposes same-sex marriage

Check.

[X] Has paranoia of foreign regimes

Check

[X] Fear of Communist regimes

Absolutely. Especially with the freakin' communist regime Obama's trying impose on me!

[X] Opposes one world government

Check.

[X] Bemoans the decline of U.S. stature in the world.

[X] Upset with loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs to China and India.

Check and check.

So, this is a hit list against Conservatives, violating the core principle of the Constitution of the United States. Here, I'll make it easy for you. This is what you should have said:

"To all law enforcement officers. Today is tax day; be on the lookout for tea partiers protesting the money The One has spent. He is the president, and he must not be questioned.

We expect these Conservatives and Tea baggers to be out in full force today, and they may get out of hand. [Ironically, I'd like to interrupt this fictitious narrative to point out that no one did. Except CNN.]

Protesting what the president is doing is a violation of federal law. Be prepared."

Or something like that. When, once again, ironically, protesting anything the government does is not a federal offense in this country!

Fortunately, this story has a somewhat happy ending. This Right-wing risk assessment was released because of the Tea parties, but not everyone the DHS's crap. Michelle Malkin reports:

Senators Coburn, Brownback, DeMint, Burr, Murkowski, Inhofe, and Vitter sent the following letter to DHS Secretary Napolitano yesterday concerning the DHS conservative hit job:

You can follow the link up there to get the whole letter. It's good stuff.

Well, I'm off to go off and be a terrorist proudly and patriotically support my country.

The Great Britian Gaffes

On behalf of sane, rational Americans everywhere (read: everyone who didn't vote for Obama), I'd like to apologize to England's leaders; Gordon Brown and the Queen.

I am deeply, deeply sorry for what NObama has done. We are doing our best to ensure he does not get a second term. In the meantime, please accept our apologies for the slights and breaches of etiquette.

No, Americans, I'm not kidding. This is what your hope and change has done:

Barack Obama met the Queen at Buckingham Palace today and gave her a gift of an iPod loaded with video footage and photographs of her 2007 United States visit
to Richmond, Jamestown and Williamsburg in Virginia. In return, the Queen gave the President a silver framed signed photograph of herself and the Duke of Edinburgh - apparently a standard present for visiting dignitaries.

It is believed the Queen already has an iPod, a 6GB silver Mini version she is said to have bought in 2005 at the suggestion of Prince Andrew.

UPDATE: Pool reporter Richard Wolf of USA Today says that an Obama aide told him the President also gave the Queen a "rare songbook signed by Richard Rodgers". END UPDATE

An iPod. He gave the Queen an iPod...

Oh for the love of freedom. JammieWearingFool reports:

Jake Tapper updates with the entire playlist that Obama had loaded on the Queen iPod.

"Send in the Clowns," Judy Collins,

Sadly, 53% of the American people did just that in November.

In case the Queen can't get to sleep fast enough, the megalomaniac also included his own speeches.

What a sport.

Oh for the love of decency! It gets worse:

I just hope that its power can be recharged in the UK. They have a different power-system also.

First it was the region 1 encoded DVDs for Gordon Brown, and now it's the iPod for the Queen. Oh for the love of anything other than liberalism.

My deepest, most sincerecest apoligies to Great Britian. Remember, not everyone voted for this idiot. Please don't hold him against us.

Money Problems Everywhere...

And more than you might think!

Let’s start with the top kingpin: one Barack Obama. His impressive resume includes sliding into the White House mostly on the race card.

Well, it’s no wonder he picked tax cheats for his cabinet. You see, he owes the city of Philadelphia $24,000, he owes Springfield Illinois $65,000, and he owes Chicago $2 million.

That’s a lot of zeroes, but give me a minute… alright. The combined final cost of all these bills comes to $2,089,000.00.

And I thought he was rich.

Next, we have Joe Biden, who is also being fraudulent. Cross-posted from There's My Two Cents:

The Bidens' 2006 purchase of Paradigm has sparked litigation. In December, James and Hunter Biden settled a lawsuit brought in New York state court by a one time business partner, Anthony Lotito Jr. Mr. Lotito alleged the Bidens owed him money from the Paradigm purchase. In court filings, he also contended that James Biden asked him to help Hunter Biden, who had been a Washington lobbyist, get into the hedge-fund business. Mr. Lotito alleged that Joe Biden was concerned about the impact his son's lobbying could have on his planned 2008 run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Mr. Biden did run for president but dropped out of the race.

More here, if you want the full article.

Rahm Emanuel is also cheating:

Gawker first reported that Emanuel rents a basement apartment last week, mostly to make fun of the chief of staff for sleeping on a futon under a blacklight poster of Bob Marley. Which is an important part of the story, but it turns out the residence in question isn't zoned for rentals.

That sent Emanuel's colleague and alleged landlord out to deny the charges. Rep. Rose DeLauro (D-Conn.) told her hometown paper, "Hey, it's cool. He doesn't rent from me. He lives there for free!"

"I wanted to make clear: we have no separate apartment in our DC house, no rental apartment; all our bedrooms and living areas are part of the house and accessible. They are often used by close family and friends. In
mid-November, I got a call from the DC zoning office indicating that somebody had lodged a complaint and asked to inspect the property, which we welcomed. My husband was there for the inspection, which was uneventful and we did not hear again from the zoning office."

...Hospitality between colleagues is not prohibited by House ethics rules, but a gift of this size would have required a written waiver from the Standards Committee, which neither party has yet produced.

But, let's not stop there with the questionable ethics. DeLauro is married to one Stan Greenberg, a Democratic pollster who has made quite a pile of money off work supplied to him by none other than his semi-permanent house guest. Living for free in the home of a Democratic pollster whom you employed as both a Congressman and as chair of the DCCC might run up against the ethics rules of the "most open and transparent" administration in history. That revolving door Obama keeps talking about is actually the private entrance to Emanuel's digs.

Dude, I'm not even done yet. Let's keep going...

Of course, who can forget Tim Geithner. I won't go into detail here, but let me give you the highlights. He failed to pay $34,000 dollars he owed in taxes. He paid the back taxes and interest the day before his nomination. And this guy is the head of the IRS. Good grief, they should be the ones putting him in jail.

Bill Richardson, nominee for Secretary of Commerce, was accused of giving a state contract to one of his contributors. Whoops.

Tom Daschle cheated on taxes:

The controversy deals with a car and driver lent to Daschle by a wealthy Democratic friend -- a chauffeur service the former senator used for years without declaring it on his taxes. ...

...The Cadillac and driver were never part of Daschle's official compensation package at InterMedia, but Mr. Daschle -- who as Senate majority leader enjoyed the use of a car and driver at taxpayer expense -- didn't declare their services on his income taxes, as tax laws require.

During the vetting process to become HHS secretary, Daschle corrected the tax violation, voluntarily paying $101,943 in back taxes plus interest, working with his accountant to amend his tax returns for 2005 through 2007.

Perhaps it's a good thing he was nominated for health and Human Services Secretary. Now he can feel good about paying back all that money he owes. But still. He was using this car - payed for with tax money - without paying taxes for using it.

And then we have Nancy Killefer, who got in trouble for ...... cheating on taxes!

And how did we not see this coming?

Nancy Killefer, who failed for a year and a half to pay employment taxes on household help, has withdrawn her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government, the White House said Tuesday.

Killefer was the second major Obama administration nominee to withdraw and the third to have tax problems complicate their nomination after President Barack Obama announced their selection.

The White House said Obama had accepted Killefer's decision and that the 55-year-old executive with consulting giant McKinsey & Co., would explain her reasons for pulling out later Tuesday.

When her selection was announced by Obama on Jan. 7, The Associated Press disclosed that in 2005 the District of Columbia government had filed a $946.69 tax lien on her home for failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help.

Since then, administration officials have refused to answer questions about the tax error which she resolved five months after the lien was filed.

Yep. They refuse to let it blow up in Obama's face. My, wouldn't something like this be an embarrassment to the "most transparent administration in history"? Actually, that should be the "most corrupt administration in history". You're not as bad as Clinton yet, Barack, but you're getting there.

And then we have the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. I kid you not. She is involved in a pay-to-play scandal.


On top of all this, the second porkulus (AKA "Onmibus") spending bill has earmarks in it for Obama, Emanuel, Clinton, and Biden, along with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis. (Here, here.)

So your money is going right into their pockets. These cheats, all of whom either owe someone money, or have cheated on taxes, are going to take your money. They've already taken $787 billion, they're coming back for $410 million more (Unless that bill has already been killed - we can only hope).

And if that wasn't enough, Obama's budget calls for $3.6 trillion dollars. You can read about it here.

One final thing: as of today Geithner has announced that Obama team will crack down on tax dodgers. I suggest he start with himself.
___________________________________________________________

3-4-09
Just when I think I'm done, wouldn't you know I'm not! Apparently Apparently we have a new one: Ron Kirk. Guess what he's in trouble for... Tax dodging!

Another Obama administration nominee has tax troubles. This time, it's Ron Kirk, the president's choice to be U.S. trade representative.

Kirk owes an estimated $10,000 in back taxes from earlier in the decade and has agreed to pay them, the Senate Finance Committee said Monday. The committee said the taxes arise from Kirk's handling of speaking fees he donated to a scholarship fund that he set up at his alma mater, and for his deduction of the full cost of season tickets to the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team.

Kirk also agreed to make changes in his accounting of charitable deductions, including reducing the claimed value of a donated television from $3,000 to $1,500.

The former Dallas mayor is the fourth nominee by President Barack Obama to run into tax problems.

Well isn't this just lovely. More tax problems. The only question now is, was anyone really surprised?
__________________________________________________________

4-1-09
And just when you think it's over, you find it's not. No, this is no April Fool's Day joke:

Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama's nominee to become Health and Human Services secretary, said in a letter obtained by the Associated Press that she made "unintentional errors" on her taxes and has corrected her returns from three different years.

In the letter, which was sent to senators and dated today, Sebelius wrote that she had made changes related to charitable contributions, business expenses and the sale of a home, according to the AP.

The wire service reports that she and her husband paid just over $7,000 in back taxes, along with $878 in interest, for the years 2005-2007.

... CBS News has obtained Sebelius' letter to the Senate Finance Committee. She writes in it that she and her husband hired a Certified Public Accountant to review their returns after her nomination and that the CPA uncovered the errors, after which they amended their returns.

On the charitable contributions front, she writes that she could not locate three acknowledgment letters out of her 49 charitable contributions in excess of $250, and thus eliminated those three deductions.

She also writes that she had "insufficient documentation" for some of her tax dedications for business expenses, though because of the Alternative Minimum Tax they did not affect the amount owed. She also said she mistakenly paid off a home loan that included deductable mortgage interest.

Oh yeah, most transparent administration ever. Yeah right. Maybe she did make an "unintentional mistake," but she was nominated for the Cabinet, so we can't help but wonder...

In Case the Democrats Haven't Wasted Enough of Your Money...

Pay my respects to liberty and freedom

When we had them, we did good

Give my regards to the Republican party

I'm sure they did the best they could.

And so long to the U.S.

You taught me everything I know.

Wave goodbye, I wish you well...

...But I know that's not gonna happen. Congratulations, everyone. Liberals are working on Porkulus 2. Apparently $787 billion wasn't enough for them, so they want $410 million more. No, I'm not kidding:

"We need earmark reform," Obama said in September during a presidential debate in Oxford, Miss. "And when I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely."

President Barack Obama should prepare to carve out a lot of free time and keep the coffee hot this week as Congress prepares to unveil a $410 billion omnibus spending bill that's riddled with thousands of earmarks, despite his calls for restraint and efforts on Capitol Hill to curtail the practice.

The bill will contain about 9,000 earmarks totaling $5 billion, congressional officials say. Many of the earmarks — loosely defined as local projects inserted by members of Congress — were inserted last year as the spending bills worked their way through various committees. ...

...Democrats declared the bill earmark-free. Republicans disagreed.

"While this bill does not include traditional earmarks, we should all understand that there are earmarks in this bill," said Sen. Mike Enzi , R- Wyo. "There is $850 million ... to bail out Amtrak , a $75 million earmark for the Smithsonian, a $1 billion earmark for the 2010 census."

None of that's going to stimulate beans. The article goes on to say that once again, the Dems will shove it through with out anyone being able to see it. Sound familiar?

I sat down and added the price of these two bills, the first one and the one they're trying to pass now, together, and the final price of this porkapoloza plus the first one comes to a whopping $1,197, 000,000,000.

One trillion, one hundred ninety-seven million dollars. If this passes, we'll be paying for that forever. And I for one don't want to pick up this bill.

Houston, we have serious problem.

Oh, the Woe.

Do you remember my earlier post, Massive Economic Woe? Well do I ever have woe for you. I'm sure you've heard about this stimulus package that will not stimulate? (You know, the one has Conservatives like me tied in knots?) Here's peek at what the Democrats want to do with YOUR money. Will any of this stimulate anything?

From There's My Two Cents:

- up to $18 billion to crush brand new cars (yes, literally crush them - SUVs and trucks)
- $5 billion for ACORN
- $500,000 for dog parks
- $4.5 million for butterfly gardens
- $6 million for water slides
- $886,000 for a disc golf course
- $20 million "for the removal of small- to medium-sized fish passage barriers." (whatever those are...)
- $25 million to rehabilitate off-roading (ATV) trails
- $34 million to remodel the Department of Commerce headquarters
- $70 million to "Support Supercomputing Activities" for climate research
- $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Dept. of Energy defunded last year because the project was inefficient
- $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film (this has already been killed, but I thought you should know they wanted it)
- $88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker (arctic ship)
- $448 million for constructing the Dept. of Homeland Security headquarters
- $248 million for furniture at the new Dept. of Homeland Security headquarters
- $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees
- $400 million for the CDC to screen and prevent STD's
- $1.4 billion for a rural waste disposal programs
- $125 million for the Washington, D.C. sewer system
- $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities
- $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion
- $75 million for "smoking cessation activities"
- $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges
- $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI
- $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction
- $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River
- $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas
- $6 billion to turn federal buildings into "green" buildings
- $500 million for state and local fire stations
- $650 million for wildland fire management on Forest Service lands
- $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities
- $1.2 billion for "youth activities," including youth summer job programs
- $88 million for renovating the headquarters of the Public Health Service
- $412 million for CDC buildings and property
- $500 million for building and repairing NIH facilities in Bethesda, MD
- $160 million for "paid volunteers" at the Corporation for National and Community Service
- $5.5 million for "energy efficiency initiatives" at the VA "National Cemetery Administration"
- $850 million for Amtrak
- $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint
- $75M to construct a new "security training" facility for State Dept Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies
- $110 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer systems
- $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations
- unspecified millions to illegal immigrants (in the form of 'rebate' checks)

Are you writhing yet? You should be. 'Cause guess who's gonna be paying for all this? Yeah. You.

And why is there not $2 million or something for ditch-digging on that list? Come on Obama, you wanna be like FDR, dontcha? These 3 million new jobs'll have to come from somewhere in all this fatty goodness. (That was sarcasm, by the way.) Anyway...

People, the only thing this bill is going to do is instill socialism and misery, and we'll be paying for it for... probably until about the end of the world. Or our country, whichever comes first.

You feelin' that woe yet?

P.S.: Sorry, I forgot about the Honeybee insurance. Does anyone know how much that's gonna cost?

Kiss eBay Goodbye...

So tell me, what do you like to collect? Me personally, I like manga. These Japanese comic books are made like real books (not the 15 page things we get here in America- most mangas have at least 175 pages.)

Mangas are also more expensive than the $3 or whatever it takes to buy an American comic book. Most mangas go for $10 a shot.

If you buy it brand new, that is. If you go eBay or the resale at Amazon.com, and you're shrewd, you might be able to get two gently used manga for what it would cost to buy one brand new.

Actually, if there's anything you shop for regularly on eBay, you should quit now. After Feb. 10th, we're through.

I was alarmed to learn this morning about a law passed about two years back, after the whole lead paint scare from China. Ye olde leftist media reports:

Mandatory federal standards will soon dictate how many children's products are made before they can be sold in stores. On Thursday, the president signed into law an expansive consumer product safety measure that includes, among many elements, tough new standards for lead and chemicals in products meant for kids younger than 12. It also calls for mandatory safety tests and sets forth more ways to keep kids safe in the event of a recall.

To parents who are sadly all too familiar with product safety, the law is a milestone.

I don't think the parents were told the whole story. The whole story is pretty bad. Hand Made Toy Alliance Explains:

In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public's trust. They were selling toys with dangerously high lead content, toys with unsafe small part, toys with improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick. Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.

The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008. Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number. All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and update their molds to include batch labels.

For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers and manufacturers of children's products, however, the costs of mandatory testing will likely drive them out of business.

I found about this from a small store that has decided to close it's doors. The lady running the store can't afford to $4000 to have every toy in her store tested. Yes, you did read that correctly. It did say four thousand dollars.

If you're caught selling toys without certification, you recieve a two year prison sentence and have to pay a $100,000 fine.

Now, let's assume that it costs $4000 to have one of my mangas tested. Since the book is used, I decided that I will sell it on eBay for $5. But then I have to pay to have it tested, and then I'll have to ask you to pay me $4005 for the book, so I can make a profit and afford to sell it. You wouldn't buy it, and I wouldn't buy it either. This doesn't just apply to books, it also goes for all toys. So that right there will bring eBay to a halt. And even if I sold a T-rated manga, it still might come into contact with someone under the age of twelve, so I'll still have to have it tested.

Mangas are almost exculsively Japanese comics. I've heard of Korean ones, and American ones, but never ones from China. Every +Anima book I buy was printed in America. They bring the book over, they translate and edit it, then start printing and selling them in America.

People, this is madness. To test things from China makes sense. But what about things made in Europe, America, Japan, and Canada? It doesn't just apply to toys. Press Democrat says:

The new toy safety law is sweeping, requiring testing for dangerous lead levels and banned plastics in everything sold to children 12 and under. Going beyond toys and games, the law covers clothing, books, art supplies, backpacks and lunchboxes.

The version I heard was that anything someone younger than twelve could even come into contact with had to be tested, but you get the point.

“What we’re fearing is a lot of small companies will cut back on what they sell to the U.S. Some just may have to fold because they can’t meet the costs for the tests,” said Linda Kalb Hamm, owner of Early Work Toy Station in Petaluma. ..... “Obviously we all care about toy safety and this was an important law, but the government hasn’t thought it through.”

That's the understatement of the century. And isn't this a little delayed? The recalls took place in 2007, and the law didn't take effect until 2009.

Ann Arbor Business offers this:

At Ann Arbor Township-based product testing company NSF International, Bob Fryer pointed out all manufacturers have a responsibility to ensure their toys meet certain standards.

For Gold, the new law showcases the ultimate irony.

In order for his business - which boomed after safety fears over Chinese-produced toys led consumers to search for safer toys from companies like his - to afford the required safety testing, he found he will have to send his products to cheaper testing companies in China.

Oh, the irony.

February 10th, 2009. That's when this law takes effect. It won't just affect eBay. The Amazon resale, Goodwill, Hastings, small toy businesses, and any kind of thrift or resale shops are going to take a hit. The only thing that could stop it now would be a massive public outcry against it.

In the meantime, if you have anything you want to buy off or sell on eBay, I suggest you do it soon.