Happy Halloween!!

I apologize to you all for not having some more Monstrous Profiles this year. School and work have kept me pretty busy, but I'm glad to see some of you were still enjoying some of the older profiles.

This year I have a eclectic mix of Halloween music for you. Let's get started! First, a classic Mannheim Steamroller song, only because the embeding was disabled for Funeral March of the Marionette. Still, Rock and Roll Graveyard is pretty good too.

Mannheim Steamroller - Rock and Roll Graveyard



Next, a verified classic: Ghostbusters!

Ray Parker Jr - Ghostbusters



Of course, it isn't Halloween without the Monster Mash

Bobby Pickett - Monster Mash



I'm only posting this one because Vincent Price is in it.

Michael Jackson - Thriller



And last but not least, this one. Because ther is no possible way the Trans-Siberian Orchestra could have made this song rock any harder.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra - The Mountain



Have a great night and stay safe, everyone. Happy Halloween!

Reading Comprehension is Down, I See

It never ceases to amaze me that books such as "Brave New World," "1984," and "Atlas Shrugs" are required reading in some high schools, and that no one gets out of high school with any comprehension of what they've read. (Which begs the interesting question, what are they teaching kids about those books? That the looters in Atlas Shrugs were right to do what they did? No one can be that stupid, can they?)

Michelle Malkin had an interesting post over at Townhall this morning. It seem that the Occupy Whatever goons are in favor of a Robin Hood tax on corporations and bankers because, by golly, Robin Hood stole from the rich one percent and gave to the poor ninety-nine percent!! He's a hero to poor folks everywhere!!

“I’m after a man whom I want to destroy. He died many centuries ago, but until the last trace of him is wiped out of men’s minds, we will not have a decent world to live in.”

“What man?”

“Robin Hood.”

“He was the man who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. Well, I’m the man who robs from the poor and gives to the rich – or, to be exact, the man who robs the thieving poor and gives back to the productive rich.”

“This is the horror which Robin Hood immortalized as an ideal of righteousness. It is said that he fought against the looting rulers and returned the loot to those who had been robbed, but that is not the meaning of the legend which has survived. He is remembered, not as a champion of property, but as a champion of need, not as a defender of the robbed, but as a provider of the poor. He is held to be the first man who assumed a halo of virtue by practicing charity with wealth which he did not own, by giving away goods which he had not produced, by making others pay for the luxury of his pity. He is the man who became the symbol of the idea that need, not achievement, is the source of rights, that we don’t have to produce, only to want, that the earned does not belong to us, but the unearned does….Until men learn that of all human symbols, Robin Hood is the most immoral and the most contemptible, there will be no justice on earth and no way for mankind to survive.”

That is a quote from Ragnar Danneskjold, one of the characters of Atlas Shrugged, the book that only 1% of people who read it understand. I do think Ayn Rand put it the best. Did you notice the middle of the last paragraph? "He is remembered, not as a champion of property, but as a champion of need, not as a defender of the robbed, but as a provider of the poor. He is held to be the first man who assumed a halo of virtue by practicing charity with wealth which he did not own, by giving away goods which he had not produced, by making others pay for the luxury of his pity."
 
Why no, I don't have any Democrat politicians pop into my mind while thinking about that sentence, why did you ask?
 
But back to our reading-impaired friends at Occupy Whatever. From Michelle Malkin's Column:
 

October 29 is the eve of the G20 Leaders Summit in France, you see, and that's the date on which Adbusters wants its followers to "rise up and demand that our G20 leaders immediately impose a 1 percent ROBIN HOOD tax on all financial transactions and currency trades." The money, say longtime champions of the tax, would go to "fund crucial action against climate change."

Oh yeah, we totally need a tax to deal with the non-existent climate change.
 

Say what? Panicked governments forked over trillions to rescue politically connected, basket-case banks, and the solution is ... punishing individual investors, creating less efficient capital markets, and spreading the wealth around to global-warming zealots and welfare-state overlords?

Rest assured, the text of the Robin Hood tax manifesto will be chanted in ignorant zombie unison -- using the "human microphone" method of call and drone -- in dingy occupier camps from NYC to San Francisco and every blue dot in between. Showcasing their economic illiteracy, the Occupiers remain clueless about the real-world consequences of their redistributionist claptrap. And they're ridiculously oblivious to the irony of adopting anti-tax crusader "Robin Hood" as their hero.
...

The demon millionaires and billionaires whom the Occupiers seek to punish would not be the only ones to bear the costs. Over time, the burden of the Robin Hood tax would shift. Rogoff observed: "Higher transactions taxes increase the cost of capital, ultimately lowering investment. With a lower capital stock, output would trend downward, reducing government revenues and substantially offsetting the direct gain from the tax. In the long run, wages would fall, and ordinary workers would end up bearing a significant share of the cost."

The original Robin Hood tales of the Middle Ages celebrated a renegade who rose up against property rights violations and taxation abuses. His archenemies were not private traders or bankers, but the local government tax collector, the Sheriff of Nottingham and the power-grabbing ruler, Prince John. Robin Hood, in other words, was far more tea party than flea party.

And if the Occupy Whatever goons had actually understood what they read in Atlas Shrugged, they might have known that. Ayn Rand explained it pretty plainly.

And Ms. Malkin points out that since it's the modern politically correct, steal-from-the-greedy-rich-and-give-to-the-bum-poor Robin Hood that these people want,

In any case, if the Occupiers insist on celebrating outright theft from the haves in the name of the have-nots, perhaps they should stop complaining about the pickpockets and looters infesting their camps. Live by "social justice" nursery rhymes. Die by "social justice" crimes.

I couldn't agree more. And the Occupy Whatever Goons all ought to be required to retake 9th Grade Lit.

Maybe this time, when reading Atlas Shrugged and 1984, they'll actually learn something.

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

Ten Years Later

Well, here we are, ten years after the worst terrorist attacks of 9/11. Time sure flies. There are only two things I want to bring up today, and these two questions are asked in song.

The first is Darryl Worley's "Have You Forgotten?" everyone remebers today because today is a  ten-year mark, but did you remember seven years after 9/11? Eight? What about the years that aren't anniversaries? Do you remember it in those years? The song is dated now since bin Laden is now dead, but the question still remains, have you forgotten?



The next question is one that almost no one alive when it happens will ever forget the answer too: where were you when you heard about what happened?

Alan Jackson - Where were you (when the world stopped turning)



May the victims of 9/11, thier families, those who died trying to save them, ans those who survived, never be forgotten. May we never forget the soldiers who protect us, even now. And may we never stop trying to protect our freedom.

Never forget.

Dear Council of American-Islamic Relations: WHY DON'T YOU STICK A FORK IN IT?!?!?!

It's almost 9/11 again, the time of year where my patience for Muslims evaporates like water on a hot Middle Eastern day - not that I had much patience to start with.

So while I was waiting for the AP to run their regularly scheduled sob story about how this 9/11 will be a day like no other for the Muslims (like the story they ran last year, and the year before that,) I caught this story from Gateway Pundit.

It seems a St Louis coloring book publisher has put out a coloring book about 9/11. This coloring book was designed to help children understand 9/11. From the publisher's website:

To the American people and all others who may read this child's coloring book, We Shall Never Forget is designed to be a tool that parents can use to help teach children about the facts surrounding 9/11. This book also describes basic freedoms in America. We suggest parental guidance. As the 9/11 events are shown countless times on national media, this book will help children understand the meaning of these events. The book was created with honesty, integrity, reverence, respect and does not shy away from the truth.In this book you will see what happens to a terrorist who orders others to bomb our peace loving wonderful nation.

The September 11, 2001 attacks on America are now commonly referred to as 9/11. It was a series of coordinated attacks by a radical Islamic Muslim extremist terrorist group who call themselves Al Qaeda. They were self-proclaimed Jihadists; many American people refer to them as homicide bombers. their leader was a Saudi national named Osama Bin Laden. He and his men used hijacked U.S. airplanes as weapons. A total of 3,000+ innocent people from over 70 countries were killed. There were no survivors from any of the airplanes.

 
So the publishers tried to be respectful and honest and help children truly understand what happened on 9/11. They have succeeded. Would you like to know how I know?
 
Because CAIR, the Council of American Islamic Relations, is having a hissy fit. From St Louis CBS:

Taking heat from Muslim groups upset with a coloring book about the 9/11 Attacks, a publisher says he’s been in contact with local police and the FBI.

Wayne Bell, the Publisher of Really Big Coloring Books, Inc., says there’s been a negative backlash against the book “We Shall Never Forget 9/11: The Kids’ Book of Freedom.”

“These are people from Al-Jazeera that have called in here numerous times, people from Iranian TV, people from Palestinian Hamas TV,” Bell said, “A lot of people from the Islamic community have called in here and said increasingly negative things prior to the book being made and then after we made the book too, about the book itself.”

The book features images of Osama Bin Laden and Islamic terrorists. It also shows American citizens upset by the attacks, including a woman with a cross around her neck. But it shows no Muslim Americans mourning the attacks.

The Council on American Islamic Relations has criticized the book as one-sided, only portraying Muslims as either “extremists” or “terrorists. ”

Alright CAIR. Now explain why all those Muslims were dancing in the streets once they got word of what happened to us (not you, mind you. If you think I'll believe your taqqiya about being patriotic Americans, you've got another guess coming.)

Moving on:

Bell was asked to explain the absence of patriotic Muslim Americans in the book who were also opposed to the attacks.

“Well, I don’t know, I mean this is what our research showed us,” Bell said, “Every time we mention one of the hijackers we call them what they are. And that’s what parents wanted. Radical, Islamic, Muslim Extremists. And every time we mention one of the hijackers like the three guys that drove the plane into the Pentagon, there’s nothing else you can call them. I mean, what do think, they’re having a bad hair day?”

The good news is that despite the Muslim backlash, these books have been selling well. I hope they continue to sell well. CAIR, first you have to find a couple of patriotic 'Muslim Americans' (taqqiya again) and hope they aren't honor-killed before they can express their pro-American feelings. Assuming they have any. In the meantime, CAIR, do us a favor, alright? STICK A FORK IN IT!!! 9/11 is not about you and the liars and thieves you represent! It's about the damage that your cult caused to my country, and if you don't like it, don't let the door hit you on the way out!!!

And with that, I shall resume waiting for the regularly scheduled sob story.

Ron Paul: Lunatic

The troofers strike again. Via Gateway Pundit:

Two weeks away from the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, presidential candidate and Texas Rep. Ron Paul says that U.S. intervention in the Middle East is a main motivation behind terrorist hostilities toward America, and that Islam is not a threat to the nation.

At a campaign stop on Saturday in Winterset, one man asked Paul how terrorist groups would react if the U.S. removed its military presence in Middle Eastern nations, a move the candidate advocates.

“Which enemy are you worried that will attack our national security?” Paul asked.

“If you’re looking for specifics, I’m talking about Islam. Radical Islam,” the man answered.

“I don’t see Islam as our enemy,” Paul said. “I see that motivation is occupation and those who hate us and would like to kill us, they are motivated by our invasion of their land, the support of their dictators that they hate.”

Regarding 9/11, Paul said that attacks against the U.S. from Middle Eastern groups at home and abroad can be traced to the foreign presence of U.S. troops, as well as America’s relationships with dictator regimes.

Idiot. What middle Eastern country had we invaded during 1993, when the World Trade Center was bombed? What Middle Eastern country had we invaded before 9/11?

Why won't Ron Paul and his hoard of crackpot supporters ever go away? I think I've actually found the one Republican who scares me more at the thought of his being president than Obama getting a second term. You can't get up early enough in the morning to do that, you just have to not sleep. Ever.

Actually, I take that back. They're both equally scary, because neither will admit that Islam is a problem. Paul's stupitidty astounds me, but at least he's not a Muslim, which at this point is about the only thing running in his favor if he runs against Obama.

As to Paul's lunatic claims that somehow 9/11 is the fault of America, Let Freedom Ring had a point to make about that:

Anyone that thinks that the strain of radical Islam isn’t motivated by their thirst for ushering in a worldwide caliphate hasn’t done their homework. Fortunately, Patrick Poole did his. Read this and tell me if Ron Paul’s theory is solid thinking or insanity:

What Western intelligence authorities know about The Project begins with the raid of a luxurious villa in Campione, Switzerland on November 7, 2001. The target of the raid was Youssef Nada, director of the Al-Taqwa Bank of Lugano, who has had active association with the Muslim Brotherhood for more than 50 years and who admitted to being one of the organization’s international leaders. The Muslim Brotherhood, regarded as the oldest and one of the most important Islamist movements in the world, was founded by Hasan al-Banna in 1928 and dedicated to the credo, “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”

The raid was conducted by Swiss law enforcement at the request of the White House in the initial crackdown on terrorist finances in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. US and Swiss investigators had been looking at Al- Aqwa’s involvement in money laundering and funding a wide range of Islamic terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda, HAMAS (the Palestinian affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood), the Algerian GIA, and the Tunisian Ennahdah.

Included in the documents seized during the raid of Nada’s Swiss villa was a 14-page plan written in Arabic and dated December 1, 1982, which outlines a 12-point strategy to “establish an Islamic government on earth”, identified as The Project. According to testimony given to Swiss authorities by Nada, the unsigned document was prepared by “Islamic researchers” associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Ron Paul’s theory is that al-Qa’ida plotted 9/11 as a response to the U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia. Those with a willingness to accept verifiable truth, though, are forced to admit that 9/11 had everything to do with a “12-point strategy to ‘establish an Islamic government on earth’, identified as The Project.”
It’s time for Ron Paul to admit he’s been badly wrong about the jihadists for a very long time. If he won’t accept these planning documents as proof that the Muslim Brotherhood is determined to create a worldwide caliphate, then Ron Paul isn’t qualified to be commander-in-chief. PERIOD.

Amen. What we need in our next President is someone who understands the threat that Islam is to our freedoms and our way of life. Not soneone who is convinced that Islam is an okay cult.

The sooner this lunatic drops out of the race, the better.