LaShawn Barber Update on Duke Rape Case

The DA is "sorry". He's sorry all right.

Keep Your Watermelon Out of the Fridge

Because I said so!

S.F. Hung Jury in Dog Mauling Death of 12 Year Old

What do you people think? Should a mother be held responsible for her learning disabled son's death when she left him alone with a dog she knew was aggressive and potentially dangerous--so much so that she had him bar the door to the basement where he stayed to block the dog? There was no bathroom down there, so the boy would have to deal with the dog if he had to go?

What should the verdict be?

Old Men + Feeble Sperm = Miscarriages

Interesting research, actually. Women are often the focus of fertility issues, but men are the cause of problems in 50% of the cases. Now, it looks like they are implicated in birth defects and miscarriages. Hmmmmm........ So, if you want kids, get married younger and have kids sooner.

Minimum Wage & The Estate Tax

Suddenly, they're kissing cousins. So many things make sense inside the beltway. So a weird bill bumping up minimum wage by $2 and eliminating estate taxes for all but the overwhelmingly rich just might get passed. Or not.

We Need Two Incomes to Survive

No you don't. You need two incomes to get all the stuff you want. And that's a fact. My thoughts moved to this topic while reading Betsy Newmark's husband Craig's post about all the junk kids take to college these days. They have lots of stuff. Lots and lots of stuff.

Their parents have stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. Why? Well these kids are the first generation who, as a whole, have both parents working. The younger boomers kids are going to college and taking all the stuff that was supposed to make up for the lack of time. It's no wonder their dorm rooms are full. Their parents know no end of guilt and things.

Another thing: lots of these kids have a couple sets of parents eagerly outdoing each other in the "I'm the greatest parent" department. This competition nets the kids more anxiety, anti-anxiety medication and therapy, and yes, stuff. So they go to college with flatscreens and iPods and the latest cell phone, and still don't know who to call when times get tough emotionally. Money? Money can be had. A listening ear? Well, that is fraught. Dad or Mom might find out that the other gets more phone calls.

This divorce and remarry thing also causes this: since marriages are hardly forever these days, women continue working "just in case". It is wise to do this. A woman's standard of living plunges when she gets divorced while the former husband's goes up. But this, I think causes marriage problems, too. Both parents running around, the extra few minutes spent with the kids and then no time for each other....leads to long lunches with Bob or Barb in Sales. Which causes another divorce.

I am not saying that women working is wrong. I am saying that it is unrealistic to believe that there aren't some relational trade-offs. I am saying that with no one putting the kids first except in superficial activities and things, teaches the kids that things matter more than people. I am saying that there is a connection with working to the bone for the best address, latest style "fill-in-the-blank" and nicest car. This behavior does take its toll.

I read a feminist article (can't find the link) about how the trend of moms working isn't going to change, the economics won't let it. And so, the government must step in to help parents out. Oh yeah, that's what we need. A whole segment of society hardly counts the costs of having a child as things are now. Can you imagine the results if childcare were heavily subsidized? And what in tarnation besides building bridges and roads, is the government all fired excellent at? Keep thinking.

While there are some families plugging away at minimum wages, both working, barely scraping by, etc., these same people have two car notes, a satellite dish and 500 Cable stations. Don't forget the computers. Don't forget the TVs in every room. Don't forget the zillion DVDs. These people aren't sitting around without heat and running water and playing cards with the extended family in candlelight 'cuz they lack the resources. That's poor.

What is needed these days is 1) reworked priorities 2) sucked up pride and 3) perspective. What is more important? Two brand-new cars or a mom or dad at home with the kids? What is more important? Looking as good as everyone else or living your own life? My husband drove the Chevy Cavalier we bought on our honeymoon to work at the Medical Building for three years. That old rattle-trap was/is a good car (we gave it to some people who needed a vehicle and they have it running good as new at 15 years old!). Couldn't see taking on a car payment because it is embarrassing to be a doctor driving a hunk o' junk. But that hunk allowed me to stay home with the kiddos. So you do what you have to. Most of us have it pretty good. Even less well-off folk do okay by the world's standards. In addition, staying at home with the kid isn't forever. Kids do grow up, go to school, move on and it happens faster than anyone believes possible. Sacrificing for a few years can make a huge difference later.

Sacrifice? Ha, ha, ha! What a quaint notion. Living at a level less than my neighbor? Why, that's unthinkable. Going to college without the comforts of home. As if!

Kids are only doing what they see. They have learned their parent's priorities very well and things rule.

Liposuction Death In A Basement

Liposuction is one of the most dangerous, if not most dangerous cosmetic procedures with a doctor in a hospital who knows what he's doing. If your neighbor suggests coming to his basement for a little touch-up, I would decline. AND RUN TO THE PHONE AND CALL THE COPS! What are people thinking?

Scott Adams Solves the Mideast Problem

You think I'm kidding?

Instapundit's Guest Bloggers

Interesting. There are two women and two men. The women Ann Althouse (whom I read every day) and Megan McCardle (whom I've never heard of before. Check that, I have heard of her blog and read it on occasion--Asymetrical Information) introduced themselves with long, wordy posts. The men, Michael Totten (whom I read weekly) and Brannon Denning (whom I have never heard of before and couldn't find a bloglink to) adapted to Glenn's style--spare, pithy quote, link--even though, in Michael Totten's case, anyway, he at least is more an essayist.

What gives? Is it a gender-driven style even in the written form? More words, more relational? Because while I honestly don't have penis envy, this is one area where I really appreciate men. Economy of words. Minimal kvetching. Not long on background. (Not all men are this way, but since I'm generalizing here.)

Another theory: Or, are the men subbing for Glenn more socially adaptable? That is, are they aware that while their style is longer winded they know Glenn's isn't and want to appeal to Glenn's readership by staying within the confines of his style? This would go against generally accepted gender norms, wouldn't it? Women are more well-known for twisting into pretzels to make everyone comfortable.

In short, I like Glenn's spare approach. Occasionally he'll offer more rounded opinions, but most of the time he throws out one-line zingers that say what I tried to in five paragraphs. The best writers (I'm a huge Hemingway fan) seem very good at saying a lot without saying everything.

Instapundi guest bloggers--a living homage to gender studies.

Worst Person on the Right

Not that John Hawkins asked me, but (and this is shocking) I do have an opinion about this. My answer: John McCain. Why? Let me count the ways:

1. He's an egomaniacal, self-serving toad mascarading as an independent thinker.
2. He believes conservatives are stupid.
3. He will say and do just about anything to get a vote--he is Hillary Clinton's mirror image.
4. He can't be trusted. Because he doesn't trust the people.
5. He's vengeful and always seems just this side of stable. He makes me nervous.
6. He thinks the press are his friends and will elect him.

There are more reasons that he is the worst person on the right. Basically, I feel that he has a general contempt for the common man. That grates. It seems to be a trait any life-long Senator possesses. He possesses this trait in spades.

Berlin: Defacing the Holocaust Memorial

More of these things will happen folks. You watch. The mask and charade will drop as Israel asserts itself. Not only is anti-semitism politically expedient because it salves the European Muslim population, the ancient deep well of Jew-hatred still houses plenty of nasty water. In addition, people sick of feeling guilty about WWII and sick of their lack of national pride, let go of the former and asserted the latter during this last World Cup.

Nationalism is back in Europe. It is not the same kind of thing that Americans view as patriotism. U.S. patriotism does not translate into fevered displays of craziness. Others have talked about it before, but because the U.S. is big and has regions and states, there are internal rivalries that mean far more to us than any other national rivalry. Showtown verses Motown. East and West. North and South. Blue State-Red State. Different. Diluted. Everyone is American. Yet everyone has their own identity. E Plurabis Unim. It's the "many" that dilutes the "crazy". It is different in Europe.

That's not to say that America doesn't have her own problems. The biggest: denial. The Seattle attacks once again, reinforce the notion that there are those among us who don't love us. It's hard to imagine, I know. America is such a big teddy bear (or murderous monster depending on your political views) that it couldn't possibly have terrorists getting groomed and ready to go here.

Because America has been relatively safe, or saved in the nick of time by an alert government, since 9/11, some believe no threat exists. And yet all the evidence shows that view to be patently absurd. The press, either purposefully trying to rob the administration of any glory or because they just don't deem the news important or through some social betterment view, hardly report the terrorists in our midst (not to be confused with the gorillas in the mist). I think that they inadvertantly help the future fight: terrorists love press. They use the press to deliver their terror, to propagandize the public and to invoke more fear. But the press finds it politically incorrect to impugn someone for their crazy beliefs and actions and so they don't cover the actions at all. It's uncomfortable to pass judgement against clearly reprehensible behavior 'cuz there is no right and wrong--just feelings. (Okay there is right and wrong, but these terrorist "aberations" conflict with pure progressive dogma so it gets less play.)

Because the press doesn't cover the terrorism, the affect is diminished. The press does this with teenage suicide because of the known pattern of copy-cats that happen after almost every incident. So, to save kids and families, the press doesn't cover these horrible deaths. Now, I don't think the press' motivation is nearly as pure when it comes to terrorism, but the effect may be the same. Reduced copy cat craziness.

Well, this was a rambling post: from European nationalism to American stick-your-head-in-the-sandism. Both Europe and America have problems. I think where they part is on the solutions.

To understand Europe more, go to RightWingNews and read this interview with Claire Berlinski.

Drudge: Damning Photos of Hezbollah

Go to this link. The guy manning the canon looks like the guy you see at Starbucks. I kid you not. How depraved can you be? Put on a uniform, stop hiding behind the Burqas and babies and be men, you scum.

The images, obtained exclusively by the Sunday Herald Sun, show Hezbollah using high-density residential areas as launch pads for rockets and heavy-calibre weapons.

Dressed in civilian clothing so they can quickly disappear, the militants carrying automatic assault rifles and ride in on trucks mounted with cannon.

And people criticize Israel? You have got to be kidding me. The world will be a better place without these guys.

Can you imagine the difficulty in tracking these nuts? And then they just move back, seamlessly, into society. And everyone is afraid/proud of them (because almost all Muslims secretly want Israel wiped off the map). Who would speak out against such sophisticated, dangerous and menacing neighbors? Right.

Parental Protectiveness Breeds Big Babies

But what can be done? I've wrote, just this week, about the psychos in my Woodlands, Texas neighborhood. So society has changed.

Tigerhawk talks about his overprotectiveness and wonders about the kind of kids he is raising. His parents think he is nuts. Maybe. I don't know. My parents took risks I wouldn't even imagine now. I don't let my kids walk to school, that's a mile away, by themselves. Even though I did in Kindergarten. And my parents let me do that after a little girl my exact age was abducted from her front yard around the block. Insane.

People are older when they become parents. We know more. We obsess. We make ourselves tired. I'm not sure anything can change this societal trend.

I don't want my kids to grow up to be fearful ninnies. I also don't want them to end up harmed or worse. Finding the balance is a challenge.

H/T Instapundit

Population & College Stats

Via Instapundit: sending your kids to schools where the young people population is shifting can make for good deals. Guess what? Kids like sunshine and good economies and are moving to Southern schools. Texas schools are booming and will grow at this rate. And why not? Great education, sunshine and general optimism. Oh yeah: and the economy is good so kids can get a job once they spend their parents fortune on school.

It's For the Children

In Southern Lebanon 34 children died by an Israeli bombing. It's war. They are civilians. Hezbollah uses civilians, children, as shields. Get mad at Israel if you want, but Hezbollah and Hamas have had no problem killing children over the years. An apt quote:

"One must understand the Hezbollah is using their own civilian population as human shields," said Israeli Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir. "The Israeli defense forces dropped leaflets and warned the civilian population to leave the place because the Hezbollah turned it into a war zone."

Hezbollah doesn't care. Israel must press on....thousands of dead would dilute the numbers of children, no doubt. Wipe out Hezbollah. If that means wasting whole cities......

War is hell. It's too bad Hezbollah started one.

More Seminar....In the Meantime, Talk Amongst Yourselves

Go here and read lots of good stuff. And thank you Right Wing News for linking here. Sorry I'm not around to blog lots of insightful, genius thoughts. But you might not get that even if I'm here.

Go over to Post Secret and cry your Sunday tears. I do.

Little Green Footballs has stuff about the Seattle killing. The murderer used a 13 year old girl to gain entry into the building. Unfrickinbelievable. Actually, not really. Shouldn't we be surprised at these levels of depravity? But, strangely, we're not.

At StrategyPage, if you spend some time there, you'll up your world knowledge I.Q. by at least 10 points. Makes you smarter to win arguments.

Deciding that with all the recent news and your recent philosophical changes regarding shooting people who threaten you, ArmedLiberal has some advice for you. Via Instapundit, who, by the way, should be your stop on the Internet right after me.

Again thanks for the link and thanks for the reading RightWing Newsers. Sorry I am not blogging more here. Ciao!

Americans: Sicker Than We've Ever Been

Well, yes. And no.

H/T Instapundit

"Enough"

Betsy Newmark covers Juan Williams treatise on Black American culture. Whew. Go read it.

Blogging Around People Who Think Blogging Is Stupid

I have relatives in town. They don't get it.

Why this addiction to writing meaningless stuff when you could be participating in meaninful conversations about...... I'm tempted. Oh, I am so tempted. So tempted to tell you all the conversations that are sucking the I.Q. points right out of my addled brain.

But I will resist the urge to tell everyone that we talked about how to get raspberry vomit stains out of the Ralph Lauren comforter, the beautiful new sheets, the pearly white duvet cover and all the pillows on my guest bed 'cuz my nephew left as a present when he couldn't sleep on the kid bed made for him. Oh no, he had to sleep with Mama, because it was too dark, and the room was soooo scary. And besides, when Prince Puke-a-lot hurls, it's got to be on something with 400 thread count or it ain't good enough!

That's right. Why blog? It couldn't possibly be because my optimistic, irrepressible (there you go Ann Althouse) spirit hopes, nay, prays that somewhere, someone has a normal family. Somewhere really smart, totally lucid, socially mannered, well-behaved, delightfully incisive, and sane people spend time with their smart, lucid, mannered, incisive, sane relatives. I'm not saying that my family isn't smart, lucid, mannered, incisive and sane.

I'm just hoping that other people are as lucky as me.

More On Nutrition: Modern Myths

A lot of what passes for science is just "conventional wisdom" repeated over and over until it is accepted as fact. That especially holds true in the nutrition field.

The science/dogma seems to fall into two categories--extremes, really: the food Police who believe that anything less than organic, macrobiotic, vegetarian, vegan pureness passing ones lips is heresy (food is the sacrament, worshipping mother earth, the religion) and then the other extreme for whom the notion of "garbage in, garbage out" is a silly notion chortled about over three bacon double cheeseburgers and a case of beer. The first group believes that perfect eating creates a perfect "temple" and will extend life indefinitely. The second group believes that "when their ticket is up, it's up" and live nutritionally fatalistic lives.

When my husband and I go to nutrition seminars, we are surrounded with Nutrition Nazis intent on expunging "bad food" from patient's diets. These morally superior, and I find, generally insufferable people have put off more people on living a healthier life than saved people from certain health disaster. And, they are generally wrong.

So what are some of the classic health myths?

1. Fat is bad. No, it's not. Bad fat is bad. Unbalanced fat is bad. All these skinny women trying to get pregnant (for a very public example Courtney Cox) but either can't or repeatedly miscarry, often do not eat enough fat, and the fat they eat isn't good fat. Fat is necessary to keep the endocrine system humming. If you have zip sex drive, most likely, you're lacking precursors to good hormones. If you can't get pregnant and are not HPV positive, most likely you need fat help. Butter, olive oil, fish oils, and, animal fat, all have the stuff needed for hormone creation. So eat them--in moderations.
2. Tums is a good source of calcium. Uh, no it's not. Neither is most calcium you buy--calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate is what you scrape out of sea shells and off the sides of mountains. It is rock and it does not digest well. I know, shockingly obvious. Calcium Lactate and Calcium Citrate Malate, on the other hand are exceedingly absorbable. Remember this rule: it is not what you eat, it's what you absorb.
   
3. Perfect nutrition equals health. Ha! If only! You can eat great, but if the stomach environment is off-kilter, you won't absorb any nutrition. In fact, that is how stomach stapling and gastric bands work--they don't allow absorbtion. The upside with the surgery, you lose weight. The downside, you can die because you're so malnourished. Now without the surgery, a messed up stomach can cause you to gain weight--you are eating a lot but absorbing no nutrients. The body registers you as starving and asks for more food. You eat more non-nutritive junk and you're always hungry and eventually you get fat.

For more detailed information, if you live in The Woodlands area, the other Dr. Clouthier has nutrition seminars. Go over to his blog. He talks about health topics quite a bit.

"Violent Mob Want Peace"

Best headline of the day, if not, month. Via Instapundit.

More Nutrition From Seminar

Calcium is good for you. Best kinds: Calcium Lactate and Calcium Citrate Malate.

Teen girls need 1500 mg.

The rest of us need 1000 mg.

There ya go.

Back later for more on why.

Light Blogging Today

Nutrition seminar, folks.

What I've learned so far:

Eat butter--cholesterol levels below 300 are fine, get off the stupid Statins
Eat more fermented stuff--will help you digest your food

Back later.

Killers Are Mentally Ill

I said that about Andrea Yates, and it's true about any killer. Mentally stable people don't go on murderous rampages against innocents, do they? Don't you have to be crazy to kill, unprovoked, unarmed people?

No they don't. Hugh Hewitt talks about how the MSM excuses criminal behavior by labelling it crazy. And then, interestingly, the stories vanish. Poof! Gone into the fog of failed mass murder attempts by Islamic radicals that no progressive wants to admit exists.

Good News

After a day of bombings and bombs and killings and crazies, I wanted to end the day on a good note. Well, the good note is this: it is a blessing to have family who loves you. It is a blessing to love your family. Today was a day of family and sun and the pool. It was a happy day. Even though every other minute my family made fun of my blogging. Oh well....

Happy Weekend!

Mass Shooting at the Seattle Jewish Center

Instapundit has all the news.

It's disturbing. More on the Seattle thing at Pajamas Media. More at Drudge.

The victims were women, one 17 weeks pregnant. The aggressor a Pakistani male with a criminal history, (this is alleged at this point) supposedly has no terror contacts--he's just a disgruntled Muslim man.

You know what I'm sick of? All the murderous, marauding, mayhem causing Jews at the the center of these melees. If it weren't for them....... Those poor, terrorized Muslims in Dearborn and everywhere else in the U.S. fearing, at any moment, the aggressive Jews will come and get 'em.

Deb Frisch At It Again

Jeff Goldstein is down and putting together a legal case against Deb Frisch.

Background here, here and here.

There is a new strain of cyber crazy and it's getting more virulent. More at Patterico's.

Michelle Malkin: "Abusing Kids For Art"

Michelle Malkin links to an LA photographer Jill Greenberg who induced crying in children, took their pictures and said their reactions reminded her of how she felt since the presidency of George Bush. Go look at the disturbing images yourself.

You know, I keep thinking that people can't get any crazier and then something like this happens. I think: we're not all that different, it's just the media accentuating and polarizing the populace and then something like this happens.

That a mother would take candy away from children and that their parents would assent to this treatment is unbelievable to me.

As a side note, I do find this "art" revealing, but not for the reasons Ms. Greenberg intends: they demonstrate the Machiavellian lengths some will go to to justify their belief systems.

Update:

Perhaps the greatest irony of the work is Greenberg's overlaying of a political message, one preaching compassion and intelligence at that, to a process that involved the willful manipulation of toddlers to break down their toddler-sized psyches and leave them in a pool of their own tears. I agree with the artist and many others in this country in her assessment of the current administration in Washington. But Greenberg's own tactics are a mordant, grotesque "nursery-school version" of the most conspicuous of those same policies and practices. One anonymous commenter on Hawk's blog attempted to reconstruct what happened in Greenberg's studio, using only information she herself has made available regarding how she made "End Times" possible:

Forcibly making a child have an episode of tremendous anguish, as is indicated on their faces (these children are well beyond simply crying) is an act of abuse. She is abusing her power over them, as both an adult and what the child sees as a trusted friend to their parents. I doubt if she sat the children down and said “Ok here is what I am going to do. First, we will take off your clothes, then I will have you sit right over there. Next, my assistant here and I are going to do many things to get you to cry as hard as you have ever cried before. We will do that by having your parent leave the room, giving you some candy or a toy, and then grabbing it from you. We will do this over and over until you are crying good enough for me, and then these bright lights will flash over and over again, until I have a good enough picture. We will do this and there is nothing you can do to stop me. Thank you for your time and understanding, and participating in this historic event that is really a comment on my feelings towards the Bush administration. I am sorry we have to terrorize you like this, but you see, this is for the greater good. These pictures will make that bad man go away and stop hurting other children.”

No, "End Times" is not Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, or even your average episode of 24. But I don't think anyone who has alluded to contemporary torture meant to imply an equivalence so much as a cleaner metaphorical link than the one Greenberg attempted to foist on her own work. Stripped of its purported conceptual framework, "End Times" is, above all else, a detached experiment in bullying, period. This fact makes it almost embarrassing to critique Greenberg's work on a deeper level, because it necessarily involves thinking things through more thoroughly than the "artist" herself seems inclined to do, prefering instead to assume that her instinctual response will hold up without further investigation and elaboration, grimly following her idea to its logical conclusion without recognizing how well she is mimicking her supposed enemy in her expression of concern for children. 1984, this one's for you. [emphasis added, ed.]

That's from Jeremiah McNichol's blog Thinking In Pictures. He gives the most cogent evaluation of Jill Greenberg's "work". He approaches the notion of even giving this "art" an audience as reinforcing the moral depravity of the "artist". He says:

I believe that the moral dimension of "End Times" cannot be ignored, and that an artist need not profit from societal objections to their work if those objections are sound and widely shared. I further believe that Jill Greenberg's work should not be viewed through the art-historical lens of edgy, contemporary art, but is instead a cultural hiccup that should be shelved with divisive cultural artifacts like black minstrelry, art involving the physical abuse of animals, and other works that reflect a sensibility so alien that it is better approached not as art, but as the fractured product of a diseased mind or a necrotic culture.

I think the best response to any travesty of this nature is careful critique supplanted by outright mockery. Someone out there may prove otherwise, but I think that Child Welfare Services has no applicable standard for judging what Greenberg has done, that Paul Kopeikin really believes that hate mail means he has truly arrived, and that any pain Jill Greenberg suffers from your calls and letters could easily be "expressed" in an equally repugnant new series of work. My personal and untested opinion is that the only way to stop this kind of practice is to laugh it off the public stage. The art itself will die without too much help from us.

Let's hope this art will die, but why am I quite sure she'll get rich from her depraved work? Surely George Soros could use a "Greenberg" or two in his mighty gallery. Cindy Sheehan and her vile misuse of her own son, surely will have no problem with another woman violating her child's trust for the sake of art and the "greater good." In fact, Greenberg's art illustrates perfectly the progressive movement's house of horrors. Maybe the art will signify the times more than even she can fathom. The more I think about it, the more I believe it does.

Muslim Botox Lovers

Fatwa issued against the cosmetic use of Botox. A couple thoughts:

1. You're under a Burqa who gives a flip if you're wrinkly or not?
2. Islam is so freeing: no need to make yourself look young and beautiful. Free to be ugly.

It also brings me around to my favorite Muslim woman--Al Zark's mom. She is still blogging away--now from Rehab. Hey, she's a celebrity!

Woodlands Residents: West Nile Here

By the way, friendly neighbors. A friend of ours had mosquitos tested in her yard and they carry the West Nile virus.

My advice? Keep your immune system strong: Vitamin C, Adjustments, happiness, blah, blah, blah. And, bug spray. Getting bit by one nasty fella is bad. Getting bit by 15 of them would be worse.

Count on me for the obvious.

Lance Bass & His Sexuality

Do you really care? I mean, really. Do you assume, like I do, that most Hollywood types have the self-esteem and standards of your local prostitute or lawyer or used car salesman and do what feels good with whomever fells good whenever feels right? Maybe I overgeneralize.

As far as Mr. Bass goes, what was the giveaway? That he wears blue eye-liner? What? Is it just the straight guys I know who shun the MAC counter or is my circle limited? Come on.

Same goes for Ricki Martin. Rosie O'Donnell was a mystery to no one. Clay Aikin, poor baby, too. Cynthia Nixon, shocking. Ellen DeGeneres another shock. What is shocking is that these people think that their personal life is shocking.

Oh and let's feel sorry for cheaters Anglelina and Brad. And for that matter, let's feel sorry for Jennifer Anistan jumping out of the frying pan and into the Vince Vaughn fryer. And keep crying for Nick Lache and so-not godly Jessica Simpson. Oh and tears for Tori--she of the former rich girl, home-wrecking fame.

And Chelsea Clinton isn't ugly. And Lindsey Lohan isn't a lush. And Justin Timberlake is into committment and will marry Cameron Diaz.....someday. And Guy Ritchie isn't sick of being a house husband. And Madonna isn't getting old. And no one has anorexia 'cuz it's normal to be six feet tall and weigh 70 pounds.

And the best one of all: Brittney Spear's husband isn't a no-talent ass-clown, gold-diggin' wannabe. Oh no. He is a good husband. He is a stellar father. And he is, most of all, very high class.

Supposedly these mysteries to no one have been outted by PerezHilton.com a gossip blogger who is saying what everyone, anyone, with half a brain already knows and doesn't really care about. Oh they care, superficially, in a salacious, these aren't really people, they are pretty heads on a stick-kind of way.

Yup, these celebs live super-duper double secret rarefied lives. And they do. Except the secret part. Sorry crazy cat superstars: when we see you over and over and over and over in every form of media we do get your vibe. And that includes which team you're batting for.

We. Don't. Care.

Freed Terrorist Fundraiser

A triumphant day for terrorists. Thank you ACLU.

Maxed Out Mama Talks Funny Money Loans

She worries that the adjustable loans will end up causing problems because people will owe nearly 100% more than their original loan amount when it is all said and done.

See what I mean about funny money loans? The borrower's payments in the first example go:
Year 1: $824 - 76 (second paid by Beazer) = $748
Year 2: $886 + $529 = $1,415
Year 3: $953 + $529 = $1,482
Year 4: $1,024 + $529 = $1,553
Plus, to achieve the low initial down payment the borrower is signing up for negative amortization, which means that their loan balance rises for a while instead of dropping. The first mortgage is adjustable too, so the payments could go even higher. Very few people who take this deal would be able to keep the house, because unless they brought money to the table they would almost certainly be unable to refi out of it (without double digit price inflation, which is no longer in the cards). The second example is no better.

So big whup, right? You have a good job, your health and the mortgage is fine. Or, you plan to move and the market is fine. Not so fast, there professor.

When you look at new home sales figures and prices keep the above example in mind, because it is certainly not unique. I hope this helps you to understand why the downside to this market is so huge. In many cases, "homeowners" will never be able to make even their first reset payment. There are cases of people unable to make their very first mortgage payment.

If you think this is funny, consider the impact on your home value. Sure, you may have signed up for a 30 year fixed-rate last year when you bought. But your home's value will be depressed when the forced sales from this type of maneuver start rolling back onto the market en masse. When you find your home worth less four years from now in nominal dollars than it is today, you'll understand what a brutal racket this has been. [emphasis added, ed.]

I never thought I would become a wild-eyed consumer activist, but at this point all I want to do is find some public interest law firm and give them the ammo to sue the britches right off these and similar people. You see, I calculate loans and consumer disclosures, and I can usually find some sort of error in about 50% of RESPA loan document packages (although that isn't true for my banks). And Hillary? Hillary with her proposal to offer downpayment assistance? Hillary is looking after the Beazers of the world, and not the people she claims to want to help. Watch her campaign finance contributions - you'll see. Because a $5,000 taxpayer-funded downpayment gives a lot of room to roam for crooked outfits like this, and only abuses the "buyer".

Mama has been beating the drum of doom about the housing market. I'm not sure how this applies in a fairly valued market, versus a wildly over-valued market like in Florida. I'm guessing that over-valued areas are worse. People can't get out from under a mortgage they can't handle and even putting it up for foreclosure doesn't work--because values stink so bad no one can even pay that.

Non-negative Words

Ann Althouse wonders where all the repressible (as opposed irrepressible), also known as repressed people, live. The comment thread is a nerd-haven. No wonder I like it so much.

John Podhoretz: Can Democracies Win?

John Podhoretz via Instapundit asks the question that has been on my mind for this last week. Israel has a very long history, actually, of stopping the fight before they have definitively won. They even ignored God's orders to wipe out a sworn enemy and have rued that decision for a very, very long time. Podhoretz says (longish):

WHAT if liberal democracies have now evolved to a point where they can no longer wage war effectively because they have achieved a level of humanitarian concern for others that dwarfs any really cold-eyed pursuit of their own national interests?

What if the universalist idea of liberal democracy - the idea that all people are created equal - has sunk in so deeply that we no longer assign special value to the lives and interests of our own people as opposed to those in other countries?

What if this triumph of universalism is demonstrated by the Left's insistence that American and Israeli military actions marked by an extraordinary concern for preventing civilian casualties are in fact unacceptably brutal? And is also apparent in the Right's claim that a war against a country has nothing to do with the people but only with that country's leaders?

Can any war be won when this is the nature of the discussion in the countries fighting the war? Can any war be won when one of the combatants voluntarily limits itself in this manner?

Could World War II have been won by Britain and the United States if the two countries did not have it in them to firebomb Dresden and nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Didn't the willingness of their leaders to inflict mass casualties on civilians indicate a cold-eyed singleness of purpose that helped break the will and the back of their enemies? Didn't that singleness of purpose extend down to the populations in those countries in those days, who would have and did support almost any action at any time that would lead to the deaths of Germans and Japanese?

What if the tactical mistake we made in Iraq was that we didn't kill enough Sunnis in the early going to intimidate them and make them so afraid of us they would go along with anything? Wasn't the survival of Sunni men between the ages of 15 and 35 the reason there was an insurgency and the basic cause of the sectarian violence now?

If you can't imagine George W. Bush issuing such an order, is there any American leader you could imagine doing so?

And if America can't do it, can Israel? Could Israel - even hardy, strong, universally conscripted Israel - possibly stomach the bloodshed that would accompany the total destruction of Hezbollah?

If Lebanon's 300-plus civilian casualties are already rocking the world, what if it would take 10,000 civilian casualties to finish off Hezbollah? Could Israel inflict that kind of damage on Lebanon - not because of world opinion, but because of its own modern sensibilities and its understanding of the value of every human life?

Modern war strategists don't seem to acknowledge the notion that they are, by waging war in what I called a "pussy-footed" way, trading casualties--ours for theirs or our allies for the enemies.

As Sun Tzu said, "all war is a loss". His first rule, it is also the most important. That is, when all other avenues fail, and you decide war is the only way, it is important to remember you will be losing something, probably a lot of something--the time, money and resources could have been spent building or investing. Instead lives, money, natural resources are, in a sense, destroyed.

That doesn't mean a war isn't worth the outcome, and in fact, Israel ignored Hezbollah's growing menace at her own risk. A war, once endeavored, must be won, or the investment is for nothing. That's why, when Israel and the U.S. possessing overwhelming power, use half-measures, they doom their own efforts. Cunning and guerilla warfare might be helpful to a less sophisticated enemy--the U.S. used it to great effect against the British. The Iraqi "insurgents" are using it to great affect now. But when you have far superior fire power, to not use it when it is called for can be construed as lack of courage and the determination to get the dirty deed done.

And, that ambivalent, navel-gazing place is where I fear Israel, and the U.S. in Iraq, for that matter finds itself. Podhoretz explains why that is so terrifying:

Where do these questions lead us?

What if Israel's caution about casualties among its own soldiers and Lebanese civilians has demonstrated to Hezbollah and Hamas that as long as they can duck and cover when the missiles fly and the bombs fall, they can survive and possibly even thrive?

What if Israel has every capability of achieving its aim, but cannot unleash itself against a foe more dangerous, more unscrupulous, more unprincipled and more barbaric than even the monstrous leaders of the Intifada it managed to quell after years of suicide attacks?

And as for the United States, what if we have every tool at our disposal to win a war - every weapons system we could want manned by the most superbly trained military in history - except the ability to match or exceed our antagonists in ruthlessness?

Is this the horrifying paradox of 21st century warfare? If Israel and the United States cannot be defeated militarily in any conventional sense, have our foes discovered a new way to win? Are they seeking victory through demoralization alone - by daring us to match them in barbarity and knowing we will fail?

Are we becoming unwitting participants in their victory and our defeat? Can it be that the moral greatness of our civilization - its astonishing focus on the value of the individual above all - is endangering the future of our civilization as well?

At this rate, these half-measures do endanger the future of our civilization. They embolden the ignorant and morally repugnant. It wouldn't be the first time in history that God used human thugs to punish those who should know better.

Another Web Analytical Tool

Want more traffic? Try this: 103Bees.

H/T Seth Godin

Competitors Versus Products

So many people focus on their competitors, not on their own product. This is...counterproductive. (Couldn't help myself.) Do I need to remind you people of the Bell Curve? Short answer: most people are stupid or at best, mediocre. No one likes to admit it. No one likes to be part of the group, but there it is.

To differentiate your product, focusing on what the dumb-asses down the street are doing just results in you being obsessive about dumb-ass products or dumb-asses. How helpful is that?

Here's a thought: why not focus on what will help make your customer's life easier? Focus on that solution. You'll have more customers. Girls will dig ya. Guys will want to be ya. Okay, I won't go that far.

Anyway, this is a riff on what's being said over at Passionate Users, which is fantastic as usual.

Michael Totten Explains Lebanon

It is sad. It is worth reading the whole thing. Here are some exerpts:

Syria’s Bashar Assad threatened to make Lebanon burn if his occupation troops were forced out of the country. Most Lebanese think that’s what last year’s car bombs were about. After former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, was assassinated downtown, all the car bomb victims were Christian. All the random car bombs exploded in Christian neighborhoods. The idea - or so the Lebanese thought - was to whip up sectarian hatred, to get Christian militias to rearm and retaliate, and to re-ignite the Lebanese war. Assad yearned to burn Lebanon, and he was not shy about saying so. Syria, or so he hoped, might be invited back in to stop the chaos with the soldier’s peace of the Baath.

That plan didn’t work. Hardly anyone wanted a return to civil war. No Christian vigilantes retaliated against Muslims (Sunni or Shia) because they knew it was a trap set by the Baath. That, most likely, is why the siege of the car bombs came to an end.

He then explains sectarianism in Lebanon.

I spent a total of seven months in Lebanon recently, and I never could quite figure out what prevented the country from flying apart into pieces. It barely held together like unstable chemicals in a nitro glycerin vat. The slightest ripple sent Lebanese scattering from the streets and into their homes. They were far more twitchy than I, in part (I think) because they understood better than I just how precarious their civilized anarchy was. Their country needed several more years of careful nurturing during peace time to fully recover from its status as a carved up failed state.

By bombing all of Lebanon rather than merely the concentrated Hezbollah strongholds, Israel is putting extraordinary pressure on Lebanese society at points of extreme vulnerability. The delicate post-war democratic culture has been brutally replaced, overnight, with a culture of rage and terror and war. Lebanon isn't Gaza, but nor is it Denmark.

Lebanese are temporarily more united than ever. No one is running off to join Hezbollah, but tensions are being smoothed over for now while everyone feels they are under attack by the same enemy. Most Lebanese who had warm feelings for Israel -- and there were more of these than you can possibly imagine -- no longer do.

This will not last.

My sources and friends in Beirut tell me most Lebanese are going easy on Hezbollah as much as they can while the bombs are still falling. But a terrible reckoning awaits them once this is over.

On Israel and Lebanon:

Israel and Lebanon (especially Lebanon) will continue to burn as long as Hezbollah exists as a terror miltia freed from the leash of the state. The punishment for taking on Hezbollah is war. The punishment for not taking on Hezbollah is war. Lebanese were doomed to suffer war no matter what. Their liberal democratic project could not withstand the threat from within and the assaults from the east, and it could not stave off another assault from the south. War, as it turned out, was inevitable even if the actual shape of it wasn’t. Peace was not in the cards for Lebanon. Its democracy turned out to be neither a strength nor a weakness. It was irrelevant.

Utter doom, except a miracle happens.

H/T Instapundit

"Tour De Farce": Floyd Landis' Alleged Doping

We were all duped about a Tour without dope. Maybe. Call me cynical, but every time an American gets nailed for potential wrong-doing, I wonder. If the Europeans didn't hate, yea,verily loathe, Americans so much, if they didn't conspire in voting scandels against Americans, if they generally showed some vague sense of fairness to anything American, maybe I would believe these scandels right out of the gate.

Landis doping, is of course, plausible. "Everyone is doing it" doesn't seem to by a hyperbolic stretch. Landis and his bum hip made big news and big money for the Tour organizers. One wonders if they knew the results before and loved the story and let the sinner compete. Nah. That is going from cynical to conspiratorial.

A great editorial by Matt Seaton at the Guardian Unlimited caught my attention. He notes that Tour watchers voted with their fingertips and viewership was way down. He adds:

Many will feel, though, that the teams face both ways -- demanding the top results, but then freezing out the riders who feel they have no option but to dope in order to deliver them. The riders' attitude is that they are always the poor bloody infantry -- used, abused and ultimately expendable.

There is some truth in this, but it's time they got past that ancient sense of grievance. We've seen the riders exercise their power in the past with sit-down protests and the like when there's something they don't like -- such as dangerous racing conditions. Tackling doping is, if nothing else, about their livelihood and their health. The one thing that might change the present dismal vista of pro cycle sport would be for the riders themselves to organise and take a collective stand against doping. Declare an amnesty now, by all means, but then exercise zero tolerance; create a culture of whistle-blowing; and end the code of silence, the omerta, that protects the dope-cheats.

We'll see about Test B for Floyd Landis. In the meantime, we wait. The Tour, after Lance, might just sink back into irrelevance where it had been for a long time. Drugs or no drugs, it takes more than a bunch of guys in tight shorts riding for miles and miles and miles and miles to capture more than just the die-hard fans' attention. I see the future of the Tour De Force and it's the snooze button.

Google Click Fraud

There has to be a technological way to determine nefarious clicks. Google's crazy earnings can go from somethin' to nothin' if people suspect fraud. And fraud would be very easy to commit. Amazon partner stuff, too. Of course, like Dell is learning, it takes just whiff of indifference to kill a company.

Bloggers can be a boon or bane to any company. Tech companies, more than anyone else, should know this.

Israel Has Choices

What will Israel choose to do? I go to this link to a Jerusalem paper and see the sweet faces of the dead Israeli boys and I wonder about the resolve of these people to sustain a loss of life. It seems to me that the horses have left the barn on this venture, but that has never stopped determined politicians from trying to gather them back in and pretend it is a victory.

Iranian leaders are trying to get more arms to Hezbollah. Let's hope they don't find a way to supply them. And there are already sharp criticisms saying that Israel has eliminated any good will from the Lebanese people as Marc Cooper says here, "....but Israel's prolonged and vengeful response is fostering new hatred for Israel and its US protector." An apt response comes from the comment section:

Samuel Stott Says:
July 27th, 2006 at 1:14 am

If I am reading this correctly, this is an argument for Hizbullah as an ineradicable force in Lebanese and Mideastern politics; this is an argument for giving Hizbullah a role, instead of killing Hizbullah leadership and fighters.

Okay, what are Hizbullah’s terms for peace in the Middle East?

Hizbullah’s minimum terms are the eradication of Israel.

My concern with Israel, is that they will wage a war too concerned about collateral damage and let the ground troups go into fire fights insufficiently covered. Damn the Hezbollah for surrounding themselves with their families, their "people". Trying to be antiseptic in war is a good way to lose a war, and more importantly lose the lives of your own fighters. Loss of life in war will happen. Loss of life because of pussy-footed strategy is unacceptable.

Hezbollah isn't concerned about collateral damage, are they? They are aiming their 1500 rockets, so far, at civilian centers. They know where the infrastructure, the military installations are located. They want to kill as many Jews as possible.

Israel has no choice and yet, she does. The fight must be won or, I fear, die anyway.

Hillary's Bust

The Anchoress, yet again, draws attention to the former President's and future President's (I hope, I hope, I hope, NOT) breasts. Me thinks the Anchoress has breast envy. It was bound to happen--a powerful woman, intelligent, shrill at times yes, a firecracker and ruggedly good-looking woman with thick ankles. Hillary Clinton moves people.

Brad & Angelina & Baby

Oh, my, my, my. Do we need to know any more about these Namibia nuts? The answer must be "yes". They have a new wax likeness of themselves and of their new baby, too. Ewwww....

See it all at People.

Palestinians in Gaza Worry About Becoming the 'Forgotten War'

Favorite headline of the day. All of a sudden there is a hierarchy of terrorist badness. And the Palestinians don't wanted to be lumped in with Hezbollah. No? Then stop the suicide bombers. That's called terrorism. That is not called negotiation or a "political solution". Most places it's called an act of war. And with the mood everyone is in, maybe you should be worried about being the next flattened turf that terrorists once called home.

Scarlett Johansson: Owns A "Cracking Set of Bazzers"

That's the British way of saying that the "new face and boobs of Reebok" has got it all.

Woodlands, Texas Residents: Kid Safety Alert

In the sicko psychos department, twice in the last four weeks a man has stopped and tried to snatch children here. The mothers were outside of eyeshot of the would-be criminal but saw the person talking to her kid. In both cases, when the mom came out of the garage or house the guy ran and took off in his white vehicle (one a car, one a truck).

In both cases the men were described as between 35 and early fifties, both white. The most recent guy somewhat balding. The other guy with darker skin.

Also, a known sexual predator has been hanging out at Cranebrook Pool and sliding down the kids slide. He has been overly friendly to children. His record is online. In fact, you can find the registered (not all guys are registered) offenders online here.

You know, this community is relatively safe. It is no utopia, by a long shot. But it is a peaceful suburb that enjoys low crime rates compared to most cities.

And yet, for all that, parents cannot let their children play in the front yard, must supervise them all the time, and must place in their children a mistrust of all adults. All this because deranged, sick men terrorize neighborhoods and families.

Most of the sexual assaults and molesting happen within families by fathers, stepfathers, uncles, grandfathers and, of course, the church eldership. Most of the abuse happens under the noses of people who can't, don't or won't see what is right in front of them.

Sexual predators have significantly changed society. The way families care for their children has dramatically been altered by these threats. And no wonder, right? What rational, frazzled parent will do what our parents did--let the kids five and up roam free until dinner-time? So kids are stuck inside, watching TV, playing video games, sitting around bored. Or they are prisoners in their back-yards, playing on excessive equipment and rock-climbing walls, trampolines and pools, all because crazy pervs lurk.

Children can't ride their bikes to the local park--especially not alone. And The Woodlands has beautiful parks. What parent is going to let their kids go, though, alone?

Of all violent crime, the only categories that haven't seen rate drops are those committed against women and children. The whole situation pisses me off. On the one hand, families have had to change everything because these psychos exist. On the other hand, guys who got in trouble with the parents of a girl when he was 18 and she was 16 can have a record forever because of some bogus statuatory rape charge. That isn't right, either.

Bottom line, like thieves, these sexual predators are terrorists. The threat of their actions causes all kinds of changed behavior. Children and families don't operate like they used to, and the old way was better to a certain extent. Now, the message to our kids is clear "the world is a dangerous place" and "you should live afraid."

Death Row Killer Might Have Killed More

Do you know her? There is a group of pictures with young women from the 50s to the late 70s. Police want to know if this psycho is responsible for more deaths. Already, some women have come forward, obviously alive. Go take a look-see. Maybe you know someone.

War is Hell & Other Quaint Notions

Over at the American Thinker, Greg Richards elucidates this and other truths progressives and MSM sophists just can't absorb. My favorite point:

3. Once war is initiated, then the question is not proportionality, but victory. The question to be decided is under whose power are the citizens of each country going to live?

H/T Betsy's Page

Andrea Yates: Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity

Does this seem a fair consequence to the five murders? I wonder if her "supportive", remarried husband, Rusty, that I wrote about before regrets getting remarried, since his beautiful bride is now "free"--in a mental asylum and not jail.

I'm not sure an insanity defense is ever right. How is it just that five people are dead, yet Ms. Yates gets to live out her life, such as it is? But then, I have been happy when an abuse victim, whose plight is ignored, seeks and finds retribution. (Janie's Got A Gun, style.) That's just my dark heart speaking. Of course it is wrong to murder a psychopathic molestor. Still....

Anyway, Ms. Yates herself seems quite stunned. Andrew Cohen at the Washington Post calls it "justice." There is still a chance that the prosecutors could try Yates for the two children's murders who weren't included in this case. Cohen hopes that doesn't happen:

I hope, however, that the State just simply gives up on this case and recognizes that it is legally possible for an otherwise good person to do a horrible thing in a moment of madness. Otherwise, there is simply no point in having an insanity defense anywhere, at any time, in any case.

What's the point, indeed. I object to the "damsel in distress" thing. Women need to be held to account for their crimes just as a man would or else equality means nothing. The flip side of the weak-woman perspective is that a woman is weak and can't make good decisions--because she is hysterical. Being a woman, is by definition, crazy. Why don't feminists see this?

Dr. Helen has more.

Disaster Preparedness

Glenn Reynolds is talking preparedness for Hurricane Season "looming". As an aside, it's been Hurricane season for over a month (June 1 was the exact start date, to be anal about it.) The weather has just been quiet so far.

A couple things, having been through Rita last year, and entertaining evacuees from Katrina for the year, I have learned, here.

The hubby surprised me, a few months ago. He said that if a Hurricane came our direction, he would evacuate. It was stressful watching and waiting. But I suppose it was stressful leaving and watching and waiting, too.

The key in tumultuous times is self-reliance and connectedness. Don't count on anyone to save you and and communicate with friends, family and neighbors. Watch out for each other.

The local Houston officials did a stellar job managing everything, but they can't be everywhere all the time. They are not omnipotent and omnipresent (thank God!). We wouldn't want them to be, why do we expect it during times of difficulty?

Girls Lunch Out

In honor of the diva daughter's birthday, I'm taking said daughter and friend to Snip-Its--a salon for younguns into fashion. I kid you not. Later.

Abraham Cherrix Free To Decide Treatment

Update: Sheesh! Forgot the link. Time for bed.

A judge lifted the order for treatment. Let's pray that he's healed and that in a stress-free environment his body will heal itself. Some of the alternative treatments are hard on the body, too.

Aaron Had A Screw Loose

Oh, I thought for you who are new to the blog, or didn't get last week's post you might want to know Aaron's History here.



Everyone is doing great!






And today he got it tightened. Can you imagine a screw coming lose that is drilled into your skull and a technician taking a wrench and tightening it? Yeah, well, Aaron yawned this morning, felt something "pop" and had to get it fixed. So that was today's adventure.

Overall, though, Aaron looks better, more color in his face, more zip in his step. His body is healing. It wasn't just C-1 that got damaged. He squashed two thoracic vertabrae, too. He will probably lose one half an inch to an inch of height before this is all said and done. Minor, really, compared to what could have happened.

Tonight, we left Hearts behind and played some version of Dominos. Not to brag or anything, but a Clouthier won and it wasn't my husband. Pure luck, really. Still, fun to win!



Rhonda didn't know what a blog was. Can you imagine? I know, disturbing. She knows now. And the last post made her cry. Aren't I terrible?
















This is Collette, member of Fellowship of the Woodlands and family friend. She has been managing meals, house cleaning and just about everything else the family needs. She is also looking for a man. Any takers?


















Tallying the score. Did I mention that I won?


























Back in bed for rest says the wife.

Exotic Goth Dancer Caught With Hand in the Jar

My favorite quote:

Kay's mother told the newspaper that her daughter had always been fascinated with the macabre. As a girl she found and collected animal skulls and snake skeletons. Patricia Ann Kay said her daughter purchased the human skulls from a mail order catalog.

"She has a flair for the dramatic," her mother told the newspaper for Tuesday's editions. "I have never tried to stop my children from doing whatever they want. As long as they are happy, aren't hurting anyone, and it's keeping them out of the poor house."

Parenting standards to strive for......

Dr. Anna Pou: NOLA Doctor Killer or Angel?

I don't have enough information (the exact level of morphine and other meds in the patient/victim's body and circumstantial evidence) to know what to make of Dr. Pou's clinical judgement.

Patients don't like to think about it, family members don't like to talk about it, but these borderline decisions are made every day everywhere in the U.S. Doctors "play God" all the time. Yes, they do. They predict the date of a patient's demise. They withhold nutrition--essentially ending a life. Some doctors lean toward the "save the life at all costs" philosophy and other doctors incessantly discuss "quality of life" which is a euphamism for ending any life they deem "less than".

Like most American families, ours has bumped up against this issue more than once. An older family relative of ours was never allowed out of his medication induced coma and "died" with a lot of morphine in his system and from lack of nutrition. It took three days. He was brain-damaged from a fall. He didn't have the resources for care. His wife felt that his time was up. Let me just say here and now, that the decision was not what I would have wanted had the victim been me--I hope my husband has more internal fortitude should the situation arise. On the other hand, I don't feel in the position to condemn the elderly survivor or the doctors in the case. It was a tight call.

Bottomline: these borderline cases happen all the time. The question for Dr. Pou. Was her decision a borderline judgement call or was her decision simply expedient?

Abraham Cherrix Defies Judge's Order

We'll see what happens now.

Liquor Up!

Steve and I went on a vacation with friends to their parents Rhode Island summer home. All generations were there including the 95 year old MiMi, my friend's grandma. This is how the lazy summer days went:

• Wake up--Mimosas (at least two)
• Go walk by the beach/swim
• Lunch--Start the beer
• Swim in the ocean, ride boat around lagoon
• Dinner--Start the hard liquor (Wild Turkey, Absolut on the rocks)
• After dinner--Some sort of Brandy, or other appropriate nocturnal alcohol

MiMi drank with the best of 'em. Steve and I, our pathetic little livers taxed, pooped out at dinner time. Most times, actually, we were done in by lunch. MiMi was alert, smart as a whip and having a raucous good time. So, yes, drink up in your elder years.

Drinking. It's good and good for you.

And the Israeli-Hezbollah War (Bias) Continues....

So I'm reading the latest and go to the Boston Herald and The Times Online (UK) and The Houston Chronicle for good measure. Same information. Different pictures. Different emphasis. Different take-away.

I'm going to put the lede quotes from each one and let you guess who is who:

1. The Israeli Prime Minister today vowed to keep up the fight against Hezbollah as he went into talks with Condoleezza Rice.
2. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, leading the first high-level U.S. diplomatic mission since war broke out in Lebanon, said Tuesday the time has come for a new Middle East and an urgent end to the violence hanging over the region.
3. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a frenetic set of meetings amid intense Israeli-Hezbollah fighting, said Tuesday the United States wants an "urgent and enduring" peace where problems are solved without war.

Now which news source published these different pictures?

1. Rice with eyes closed and looking stupid with Israeli Prime Minister.
2. Rice smiling with Prime Minister.
3. Rice in warm greeting with Prime Minister.

Just like music, the message delivered in the news is rarely the words themselves. The feel, the tone, the choice of priority, the pictures all tell the story the editors want to convey.

Damien Mullen: Get A Girl.....or A Guy

In a few easy steps on Google. I kid you not, this post is carazzzzy! This guy shows you how to find someone via Google. Google Base is the most interesting/disturbing. Find people in your own zip code interested in dating.

Wow.

Brad DeLong on the Joys of the Academy & The New Blog Academy

Okay, so maybe I've been too hard on the Academy recently. Reading Brad DeLong's love letter to the institution where he works softens my hard heart:

I walk out my door and look around: at the offices of professors who know more about topics like the history of the international monetary system or the evolution of income distribution than any other human beings alive, and at graduate students hanging out in the lounge. It's a brilliant intellectual community, this little slice of the world that is our visible college. You run into people in the hall and the lounge, and you learn interesting things. Paradise. For an academic, at least.

Then, he talks about desiring a bigger audience and how he has one through the internet. He says:

Over the past three years, with the arrival of Web logging, I have been able to add such people to those I bump into — in a virtual sense — every week. My invisible college is paradise squared, for an academic at least.

And then he describes why he enjoys blogging:

Plus, Web logging is an excellent procrastination tool. Don't feel like grading? Don't feel like writing that ad hoc committee report or completing the revisions demanded by clueless referee X? Write on your Web log and get the warm glow of having accomplished something.

Plus, every legitimate economist who has worked in government has left swearing to do everything possible to raise the level of debate and to communicate with a mass audience rather than merely an ivory-tower audience. That is true of those on the right as well as the left. Web logging is a promising way to do that.

Plus, there is the hope that someday, somehow, all of this will develop in a way to provide useful tools for teaching or marketing one's books, or something — that Web logging is a lottery ticket to something in the future, unknown but good.

"Write on your Weblog and get the warm glow of having accomplished something," he says. I can't tell you how true that rings for me. Have you wanted, as an educated person at home changing diapers, cleaning the high-chair, teaching how to "carry the one" in math, just wanted to accomplish something? Blogging does that for me. If I write one sad little post and a few of you have read it, I feel like my ideas have reached, and hopefully, helped someone.

Blogging connects me to really smart people, people I'd love to have over for dinner, if I only had the time and they lived closer. Blogging connects me to their ideas. I think better thoughts, ponder deeper and more complex problems because of blogging. An ill-considered position gets corrected immediately or my idea is deservedly maligned. That's fair, isn't it? With commenting, there is no New York Times Editorial review board to sift through opinions and deem what is worthy/fit to print. Blogging is more egalitarian. Some would say more plebian. Naturally, I disagree.

Blogging is like live theater. The feedback is immediate and personal. You know if people agree or disagree. I'm still surprised that my post on Ayn Rand stirred so much controversy. Who knew she was such a beloved religious figure? Talking politics has surprised me further. Europeans who think my writing is polemic twaddle have written me and told me so. How great is that? Friends and family lurk and read and surprise me sometimes with opinions about my opinions. And then there is the rest of you who remain silent watchers. The mystery of people reading anonymously is fascinating, too.

So, Brad, has helped me lighten up (some) on the academy and reminded me why I love the Blogging medium. It's just plain fun (and not just for academics.)

WuzzaDem: Wussup Sock-uh

Glenn Reynolds calls the Glenn Greenwald sock puppetry sophistry the "kerfluffle" and linked to WuzzaDem who gave the topic "the seriousness it deserves."

Huhlarious.

History here.

Answer: Kos He Can

Question: Why does Markos Maulitas natter on network news?

Allah over at Hotair says: "I was making chickenhawk, slurs before making were chickenhawk slurs was cool." My favorite comment from that post by Pablo:

Anyway, I really like the “I was actually a Republican…”

I was actually an astronaut. And a race car driver. And a multi-millionaire inventor. And a brain surgeon. And a gigolo. And a super secret spy.

Pablo on July 24, 2006 at 5:07 PM

Via Jeff Goldstein

Meanwhile, Back In Iraq.......

The violence narrows, the culprits (surprise!) are buddies of Saddam who have yet to breath their last. Iraq the Model says:

Although late, it was a bit of a relief to see Iraqi and US commanders planning to move more troops into the Baghdad area (also via Pajamas).

I was thinking the other day that military priorities of the US and Iraqi forces need to be reorganized according to the challenges imposed by the intentions of the bad guys to take over Baghdad. I mean why does the US keeps thousands of combat troops in relatively less turbulent areas that are of much less strategic value to the bigger picture!?
This redistribution of forces should've been considered months ago.

Amen. Even I, lowly Dr. Melissa, no strategerist, have written about this notion. Glad it will be happening. Can't happen soon enough.

I'm guessing that the loss of life that will likely occur by making this shift has made it a politically difficult choice. This is war. The choice is done. Move in and extinguish the the hope and the lives of the scum who wish to protract this thing and cause the murder of innocents.

LGF: Dutch Leader Says Islamic Terror=Resistance Against Nazis

More moral equivalence: Iran controlling nuclear warheads the same as the U.S. controlling nuclear warheads. Yes, all the loud noises the Americans make about "eliminating all Dutch people from the face of the planet" probably has that wee country running scared. Whereas, Iran would defend the Dutch should any aggressor try to plunge them into the sea.

Abraham Cherrix Forced Treatment Says Judge

Tomorrow, unless AbrahamCherrix runs away, goes into hiding, or somehow, otherwise escapes, the Government will seize a young man, take him him to the hospital and force a treatment. I've talked about this before, these treatments are not so clear as doctors would like to portray them.

Currently, another 16-year-old boy, Abraham Cherrix, is drawing public attention to this issue.

Like Billy, Abraham also has Hodgkin's lymphoma. He completed chemotherapy and went into remission.

Though, the cancer has returned, Abraham has made it clear he doesn't want to go that route again.

"The first round of chemo almost killed me in itself. There were some nights I didn't know if I would make it," Abraham said. To go through it again "would kill me, literally. No joke about it."

He and his family researched and discussed the other cancer treatment options available.

Part of the argument is that teenagers don't really have the ability to see the long-term ramifications of life and death decisions. And yet, abortion without informing parents is fine for a twelve year-old? No doubt she, and her boyfriend/molestor/rapist, can make an informed decision all on her own.

"Teenagers don't really have the full capacity to understand the broader picture, " said Kara Kelly, a pediatric oncologist at Columbia University.

She worries that teens don't realize the consequences of their decision and if alternative therapy doesn't work, they could be putting their lives at risk.

A number of studies show "adolescents have some difficulty understanding the finality of death," said University of Florida professor of psychology Jay Reeve. This could, in turn, "impact the ability to make well-balanced life or death decisions."

The problem, in this case, is the parents, who are trying to act on their son's behalf back up his decision. They have heard the arguments. They have seen the evidence. It is not like the child is all alone in the wilderness here.

Raymond De Vries, a member of the bioethics program at the University of Michigan, has a different view.

In his opinion, some young people do have the ability to make responsible decisions about their bodies.

What should be done in Abraham's situation, according to De Vries, is instead of only considering the boy's age, authorities should assess how well he understands his decision and whether he understands the consequences.

Cases like this sometimes boil down to power and authority, De Vries said.

It is a "challenge to [the doctor's] authority when you go away from their suggestion. Their immediate response is, 'No,'" De Vries said.

Kelly agrees.

"Some doctors alienate patients in their beliefs, say there is no data, no science and dismiss it [alternative medicine.]"

Not all cancer treatments are clear-cut. Many "cure" the cancer and kill the patient. Some treatments make life such hell, the patient is barely living and wants to die.

Will there be civil liberties outrage? Will the ACLU take up the cause of this boy's right to self-determination? You know, it's funny, the same people who will scream about rights, seem to have no problem signing them away to a doctor. It is disturbing.

Tamoxifin Doesn't Work

Women with breast cancer stayed away from this nasty medication anyway. Now, the verdict is in: doesn't work and expensive to boot.

Blogger Burps

Have you had trouble loading Dr. Melissa's blog? Blogger had trouble again, today. Thus, the lack of posting this morning. It's safe now.

Maxed Out Mama Explains Men's Rights

Remember the men going to court to "take back their rights"? Yeah, well, the suit got thrown out, thankfully.

But MaxedOutMama perfectly summarizes the situation and the social horizon:

I'm amazed at how many people believe that that two adults should be able to have sex without the worry of having to deal with any potential pregnancy. I'd like to get to work without having to drive. I think the state should rent a helicopter and airlift me over. It's only fair.

Here's a brilliant idea:

132. My suggestion to make the system more fair
When a woman finds out she is pregnant, she must make a reasonable attempt to notify the potential father (father's) within a specific amount of time.

The potential father must then file a form with the local courthouse either accepting responsibilities and rights of fatherhood or declining them.

The potential mother is then given a copy of the potential father's form and then makes her decision as to whether the baby is birthed or not, knowing whether she will have a father participating in parenthood with her or not.

The reasons I like this plan are ...

The woman has absolute decision making authority on whether she births the baby or not.
The woman is not forced into parenthood without her permission.
The man is not forced into parenthood without his permission either.

-_________________________________________________________________

But what about the baby?

All participating parents should put a fixed percentage of their income into a state child support pool and each eligible child should recieve the exact same check each month from the pool. To me it's ridiculous that one child gets 200 times more support than another child just because one woman bedded a rich guy and the other a poor guy. Each child is equally valuable.

What if there's not enough in the pool?

Then general state funds should make up the difference because a hungry child is the responsibility of all of us, whether our condoms broke or not.

That last provision is added because there would be even less incentive for "potential fathers" to decide to "accept" the rights and responsibilities of fatherhood if they were going to be paying for everyone else's children as well as their own. There would be very, very few men who would take that deal, and many of them would often be institutionalized, so I doubt they would be contributing much financially overall.

What a brilliant plan to make every child everyone's responsibility. We'll never change. The problem really is that some one has to be responsible, and so those who want irresponsibility plan to make everyone responsible. I really don't see how that's an improvement. Obviously marriage wouldn't last long under this scheme. Given voting coalitions, the funding for the "fatherless" kids would keep outstripping the funding that the average married man could provide to his own children, especially given the high taxation rates he'd be paying for the children of irresponsible losers such as this poster.

Marxism has reached its summit. The first post (which I do believe) is a female sort of marxist paradise, and the second is a male sort of marxist wonderland. However they show ominous signs of meeting at the pass and joining forces, so I think all the sane people had better be alert and ready.

Both plans are, of course, injurious to the child. But hey, this entire debate has never, ever, been about the children, has it? Not in the least. It's always about avoiding responsibility rather than taking it. Whether you pick a father at random out of the phone book, or whether you decide to hand out cigars to the entire population, the people advocating these schemes are always, always, always trying to avoid basic human responsibility - their own.

Emphasis in the last two paragraphs, mine. Yup. The ultimate outcome for "fairness" (not to the child) will be to make the state responsible for everyone's kids.

You can choose to not have sex. Men, women, it is called abstinance. You don't have to pay child support for abstaining. No sirreee bob. There are no "mistakes" that way.

That babies are stuck with such miserable, selfish, scumbag parents is the real crime. Men whining about money, when they didn't think past the end of their penis. Women whining about responsibility, when they thought creating a baby would "get the guy" or didn't have enough self-respect to demand a condom or, they bought the hype that condoms actually make sex safe.

It's called marriage. The chief beneficiary of this archaic and supposedly out-dated social institution is the child. Two is better than one--stronger. If one is wacky, the other one takes over. If one is sick, the other one works to support the family. That the parents enjoy security, companionship, and support is also a benefit. Remember: To love and to honor. To have and to hold, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, so help you GOD. Remember those vows?

Austin Bay: North Korea Counterfeiting U.S. Dollars

North Korea is getting more provocative. Launching missles, attempting to disrupt economies, and generally being a nuisance. Why? Does there have to be a why? Can someone just get crazy for the sake of it? Austin Bay links to this article:

The arrests also prompted a more momentous accusation. After the indictments were released, U.S. government and law-enforcement officials began to say in public something that they had long said in private: the counterfeits were being manufactured not by small-time crooks or even sophisticated criminal cartels but by the government of North Korea. “The North Koreans have denied that they are engaged in the distribution and manufacture of counterfeits, but the evidence is overwhelming that they are,” Daniel Glaser, deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes in the Treasury Department, told me recently. “There’s no question of North Korea’s involvement.”

Like Iran behind Syria and Hezbollah, it seems to me that China is the power behind the North Korean crazy. And linking them both? Russia. These powers play a dangerous game. It is one Saudi Arabia and Egypt are learning the hard way: placating and funding crazies is all fun and games until you're the one with the business end of a rocket-launcher pointed up yer snout.

Right now, it suits the wanna-be world Players purposes to use the crazies to pick at the U.S. and other Democracies committed to defending themselves. It also suits their purposes to see who folds like a cheap lawn chair--so far Spain, France, the Netherlands and other weak-kneed Europeans have all demonstrated public appeasement (helping behind the scenes, when useful, 'cause for all the hate speech, it would be nice if America is there, you know, just in case....).

The terrorism, in a sense, is working. It is revealing alliances. It is revealing weaknesses. You see, underneath all the nuttiness are a few Dr. Dementos waiting for their chances at world domination. The roots of nuttiness are the same: Fascism in the name of Islam and Communism in the name of "the people". Ha! It is laughable to write it, but more than a few American Leftists swoon at the allure. No, underneath the labels are a few guys who want the world to work according to their wishes and desires. Total control of everything!

Meanwhile on DailyKos, diarists talk about the dumbness of Americans, how the Bush's economy is "flawed", and it is Israel and Bush's fault the Mideast is in tumult. So, let me get this straight:
Americans are stupid, the economy sucks (yah, the 4% unemployment rate enjoyed here is horrible), and it's all the Jews fault. Read the comment thread at the Israel link. It is unbelievable, anti-semitic garbage.

By the way, I searched Kos for a link about Israel today and there was nothing. The last three days, only the anti-semitic post and the other an open thread. This is what constitutes serious thinking? War is bad. Guns bad. Killing is bad unless you're a suicide bomber and/or are Muslim. U.S. is bad. Israel is bad. Let's see, does that about sum up the deep thoughts?

Makes me think of the scripture, "When I was a child, I spoke as a child." When will these people put away childish words and grow up?

Class of Cancer Drugs Cause Heart Failure

Every day, I could do a new post about drugs that have unintended consequences. Here are the consequences:

"Clinical trials of the agent, however, have reported a relatively high incidence of peripheral edema (63% to 66%), some of which has been classified as severe (4% to 5%)," they wrote. "In addition, dyspnea has been reported in 12% to 16% of treated individuals and has been classified as severe in 4% to 5%."

"Although these symptoms and signs are difficult to evaluate in individuals with CML, it has become apparent to us in clinical practice that many individuals, including those reported herein, have developed left ventricular dysfunction and even frank congestive heart failure without a prior history of heart disease."

They characterized Gleevec as a "wonderful drug and patients with these diseases need to be on it." Nevertheless, "we're trying to call attention to the fact that Gleevec and other similar drugs coming along could have significant side effects on the heart and clinicians need to be aware of this."

The researchers recommended that patients taking Gleevec should be followed closely for signs of heart failure.

While this drug helps a majority of people, dying does seem like an adverse side effect. It also calls into question the absolute authority doctors enjoy when demanding that patients take a "life-saving" drug that makes them feel worse and could, in fact, make them sick.

Althouse & Academic Freedom

Over at Ann's site the comment thread is a mile long (I'll admit it, I'm jealous) about whether someone can teach lies (believes them, but remains neutral) as truth and be covered by academic freedom. The thread illustrates why average people laugh at supposed intellectuals. In the real world, a dude spouting conspiracy theories about the Twin Towers being an "inside job" would be making sure his shopping cart had all his belongings. Everyone would recognize his outbursts as delusional and move on.

Not in academia. Oh no. Every politically acceptable piece of garbage can be spewed within the broad loving embrace of academic freedom. And make no mistake, for lots of leftists, opining about 9/11 Conspiracy Theories passes for enlightenment. They might quibble over classes on "How Women Ruined Western Civilization" or "Nazism: How One Race Would Really Make A Better World" or "Islam: monadic Teachings Revealed to Him By Al Gore Visiting Him From A Time Machine." But if the subject matter is politically correct: "Womyn: Reproduction is Rape" or "Multiculturalism: American Imperialism Bad, Third World Good" or "Intro to Islam: How 9/11 Was Caused By Jews, the U.S. Government, Bush, and Free Masons ", almost no progressive would say a peep. In fact, if someone does criticize teaching blatant politically correct falsehoods, they are branded anti-intellectual rubes intent on squelching academic freedom. (The Framers didn't specifically mention academic freedom, but they meant to.)

Other professors defend intellectual vapidness because they don't want anyone nosing around their syllabus. Oh no! Don't fire an idiot. Don't expect someone to teach the "truth", I might be held to a standard. Wouldn't want that. The Academy isn't alone in self-protective, willful ignorance--look at Enron and look at medicine. How is it that over 100,000 people per year can be killed by wrong medications alone and doctors defend this? Same thing. Standards make everyone nervous--especially the intellectually elite. Now, we don't mind imposing standards on the common man: there are requirements for cooking a hamburger, afterall.

All this would matter not if the following wasn't true:

1. Tax payers pay for patently false teaching. Shall we teach 2+2=10 under academic freedom? Or even better: You know what? I'm sick of the Law of Gravity, too, now that you mention it. From now on, Gravity is a conspiracy by Newtonian physicists to make people hurt themselves when they jump off of bridges.
2. Students have to work around the Professor's biases to get a good grade. In hard sciences, you can argue and win a factual inaccuracy as a student. Forget subjective topics like Literature. It is bad enough when these Profs don't teach blatant falsehoods.

Here is some of the fun I had during my Liberal Arts education. I had a PhD Lit teacher in college who was rather dull. For fun, I used a thesaurus and filled an essay with big words out of context to see if I'd get a better grade. My only "A+" came on that paper. The professor was nice, but just not smart. Now, the Philosophy professor at the same school was a tyrant. I avoided his class like the plague and I love Philosophy. He was notorious for slamming anyone who didn't agree with him. Then there was the French Teacher who gave me a "C"--four credit course--because I knew French too well and he thought I should participate more (my grades on tests were "A"s). He called me in and asked why I wasn't taking French II. When I told him that his class killed my GPA and my grade in the class warranted at least a B plus, he said, "I cannot guarantee a grade." And I said, "I am not asking for a specific grade--just grading fairness. That is why I won't be taking your class next semester."

Science classes--Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathophysiology, Microbiology--might have idiot teachers who might put together garbage exams, but if you can read a book and learn the basics, you have a chance of passing. Divining the fickle feelings of a Liberal Arts professor. Good luck!

Actually, my experience with Higher Education was this: The good professors were few and far between. Not for nothing comes the cliche "those who can't do, teach". Teachers are intimidated by genius students. Teachers enjoy the captive audience, the control, the authority that being in the academy gives them. In fact, the anti-authoritarianism that so many academics cling to is laughable--they are often petty tyrants in their kingdoms.

The best teachers are priceless. One class, one idea, can change your whole life. But they are not the reason most people go to college. College and even grad school, now, is a hoop. The accomplishment is getting through it. College is a microcosm of real world employment: politically charged, insular, petty, and often the tasks you're given are a waste of time (Dilbert anyone?). Just finishing the silliness often indicates perseverance and drive but not much else. The disturbing thing: same goes for PhDs, MDs, DCs, JDs, etc.

For a long time, I felt that higher education was a waste (after spending a good portion of my life and lucre on it). And I'm still not sure if that's not true. Intelligence will move you along in life with or without education. It's just that most intelligent people pursue formal higher education. Society requires education to make it in almost all professions--I was stunned to learn that a four-year degree is a requirement to be a General Contractor. Why? I don't get it. If the person has the chops and experience for the job, why a degree? And what does this mean for the future of the Steve Jobs of the world who just aren't the classroom types?

I worry that the academy places so much emphasis on uniformity of thought--politically correct thought--that the only "new" ideas being entertained are patently false. While tuition and fees outpace inflation (significantly), the ideas and value and world-view narrow.

Here's my prediction: Higher education, because it is so politicized, will breed new educational institutions. For a while, the big names will be able to float on their endowments and reputations, but that can only last so long.

My desire would be that apprenticeship would be another route to a career. The masons aren't so wacky afterall! Seek out a qualified, gifted teacher (Socrates) and learn from him or her. The best and brightest would make more money than they could ever dream of making in the academy. The dumb-butts like Barrett would be braying at the moon on a street corner where he belongs.

Let the free-market win out. Like it or not, Kevin Barrett represents that stellar Wisconsin institution. Just like the 69 Profs represent Duke. There will be economic consequences, eventually.

Why True Conservatives Make Better Lovuhs, I Mean Politicians

Peggy Noonan does not take a cotton to Ralph Reed. Nor do I. He is smarmy. Nerdy. A -wanna-be dork-bag given steam because he saw the Christian Coalition as an inroad into the "in" conservative crowd. He lost in Georgia. Good. Those people have some sense.

Now, onto the difference between liberals (I think she means progressives) and conservatives:

I do wish I'd been explicit in saying: I believe liberals in fact enjoy the complexity, not only because they love government--love to obsess on it, and think it is the last best hope of man on Earth--but because complexity justifies big government. Big complex question. Big complex response. Laws and rumors of laws.

Conservatives don't live for government and don't love it, either. They like other things. They think government is a necessity and a potential evil. This is because they know human nature, and they know humans run governments. Ergo extremely flawed and even damaged people are governing us. Ergo don't give them a big sandbox to play in; keep it as small as possible. That way their depredations will be, by definition, limited.

This point of view--humans are imperfect, governments even more so--is not inherently pessimistic but rather optimistic about other things: life, faith, relationships, gardens. A conservative politician who does not enjoy gardening, reading, taking a walk or seeing a play more than governing is a human warning sign: Don't go there.

Orgasm: The New Religion

The Anchoress shares her thoughts about sex, the "almighty orgasm" and abstinance:

The whole world has paid a price for it, this rampant, thoughtless, ravenous pursuit of the Almighty Orgasm - deemed more delightful, more worthy, more necessary than God or Family or even Self.

Here is her personal experience with the New Religion:

But the world, and the Prince of the world, don’t want abstinence promoted. Abstinence leads to thought…and thought, too, too often, leads to things of the Spirit. And even more often, that leads to God. It makes a Houndog into a Hound of Heaven. And we can’t have that.

Evil wants to keep us mindless and distracted. Our society has been distracted for 40 years by the non-stop promotion of sex, and by the over-emphasis on the big O. And many smart, beautiful-but-immature-and-reckless people have died for that O. In fact, in the past 40 years, many more have died for the Orgasm than have died for the faith.

Too many have died for the false god of the Orgasm. They are not martyrs. They are not saints. But they are victims of a tinsel mentality that urged them on, every step of the way. And they leave behind countless, countless lives full of pain and sorrow.

I miss my brother. God, I miss him.

I did not intend to write all of this. But, I miss my brother, S. He is gone 18 months and the pain does not go away. We are not a “noble” family because we lost our beloved S to AIDS. And he was not noble because he died of AIDS. He was noble because he was as generous and forgiving and loving and sincerely warm a human being as I’ve ever known. The KINDEST guy I have ever known. And he is gone to us, now.

And all the “friends” who disappeared when he became sick and lost his pretty looks, they’re all continuing on. Some have HIV, some do not. They’re still renting the summer houses and living the reckless, eternally adolescent lifestyle of material things and sexual pre-occupations that are so outsized they cannot be counterbalanced by the love of family or faith, lives that are so raucous they cannot hear the quiet, simple pleading of God to “draw near…”

Now, my brother’s house is empty and his things - all those THINGS he loved and had to have, all the THINGS he acquired to try to fill the void in his life, the one he wouldn’t let God fill, because to do so would have ended the party…they have been disbursed - much of it to strangers.

S was so conflicted. On one hand he wanted God, he wanted faith - he HAD faith, but faith on his own terms, and his own terms simply brought in more conflict. He could never get settled. I asked him once, if the concept of chastity, of living his life in chastity as all non-married people are called to do, meant anything to him. It was a long and serious conversation, but he got distracted. He got distracted by the next phone call and the next party, before he could remember to ask for grace.

Grace did come, finally, stunningly, very late in the ballgame. It was a sort of 9th inning grace. But I am so grateful that it finally came.

But I miss him, and it hurts. The grief is slightly - so very slightly - healed over but it doesn’t take much to rip the scab and begin to bleed afresh. I would rather spend the rest of my life tending to his bedside than going to his grave.

It is so uncool to believe abstinance works. It is so uncool to state that "there is a better way". There is a better way. There is a way to peace and fullness and liberty and yes, freedom, and that way is not through sex. It isn't through drugs. It isn't through "experience". It isn't through things. The Way is a way of light and love and kindness. The Way is God's Way. Grace. Jesus Christ.

Jesus came that we might have life, and have it to the full. These ACT UP people call Benedict XVI (and by extension all of Catholism) an accomplice to death, they have it exactly backwards. Like his predecessor, John Paul II, this pope is trying to save their lives. So that they might have it to the full. And while some would say that a celibate person has nothing to say to the rest of human sexuality, it seems pretty clear to me, from the example of countless saints…from the example of celibates like Mother Theresa and JPII, and yes, the Dalai Lama, that once can live life to the full - very grandly, very completely - without worshipping at the altar of the Almighty O.

Please read the whole thing. In these dark days, the world can seem confusing, but the answer is actually simple.

American's Getting Evacuated

Some deserve to stay constipated. Favorite comment by Susana at The Coalition of the Swilling:

Also... nice to see we have some intrepid journalists combing the Middle East for hard-hitting human interest stories, too.

You know Anderson Cooper saw her and was like, "Girlfriend! You get those highlights at Fekkai and don't tell me no. Come tell Anderson where it hurts."

Vacation or Furniture

I need a vacation. I'm way past sane and into demented mentation. Yes, it's a scary place. Here's the deal though: in a fit of absolute optimistic idiocy we decided to take the fam on a Disney Cruise. Yes we did. We're on the hook for a gazillion dollars, so it's happenin' folks. Those Disney people might look smiley, but they're all business when it comes to taking your hard-earned green-backs. That little extravaganza happens in October. I wouldn't quite call it a vacation--for me. It's more a the-kids-are-young-and-will-love-it-and-we'll-be-making-memories and-isn't-that-what-family's-all-about thing. See? Not a vacation. More like hard work you pay for.

Before October and before I experience a psychic break, Something Must Be Done. Like Congress, that usually means rushing headlong into stupidity for the sake of some, make that, any action. Here are my choices:

1. Change my location--go somewhere to get away from it all, except that it all comes with me
   
2. Change my environment--new furniture, paint, a little-pick-me-up
3. Change my attitude--buwahahah! Yeah, right!

Since number three is a definite "NO". Let's discuss numbers one and two. Changing my location means packing for me and three munchkins who have more crap than The Manolo has shoes. It means that I must make reservations. It means that I must find something "economical yet luxurious". It means that I must sit in a vehicle that will take me from here to there with strangers touching me (on a narrow-seated plane--ewwww, I hate it when knees brush up against each other) or my kids saying "I need a new video. Mom he touched me. I GET THE FRONT SEAT!"--that kind of relaxing thing.

Changing my environment means shopping. It means hearing, "Do we really need this? We have a fill-in-the-blank and it looks fine to me." It means bumping up against budgets. It means bumping up against buttheads, I mean beer guts, I mean, the muscle who would wield the pant-brush and I'd have to hear things like,"You want what color? It costs how much?" Which leads to psychological warfare and philosophical discussions about supply-side economics.

Are you tired? I know I am. It's at times like these that I imagine The Donald's conversations with his lovely wife:

The Wife: Don't you think Bermuda is lovely in late July?

The Donald: Why, yes, I do! I'll fire up the private jet.

Or....

The Wife: What do you think of chartreuse?

The Donald: Why, dahling, that color would make your cheekbones look even more prominant.

Oh, forget it. Slogging away in my everyday life should be bliss enough, right? We have our health. And although I'm being cheeky, that is no small thing.

I'm back to dithering. Any advice?

On-line Love

I know at least two couples who pop into my head who found each other through the web and are now married. Both are well-suited, actually, but have had marital troubles. Who doesn't? Anyway, are you single and wishing to jump into the dating game? Maybe an on-line service is for you.

The pros: screening for personality, intelligence, interests, looks, etc. In essence, the riff-raff gets winnowed and what remains are the people who are serious possibilities. The cons: security, safety (for women), and there is something about that face-to-face, gut-feeling that can't be factored through an on-line service. But for some people I know, the last con might actually be a "pro". These repeat date disaster (which lead to relationship disaster) offenders have the worst gut-instinct, ever. Taking that out of the equation, making the relationship pursuit more clinical and scientific could actually be a good thing.

Being married and out of this arena, I must defer to other sources of information. Aren't you curious, married people, what a questionnaire mixed with some metrics would mate you with? I am. (I'm picturing me with Orlando Bloom. I wonder if Match. com would too?) I'm not curious enough to sign up and break someone's heart leaving them shattered and tattered in the sizzling hot Dr. Melissa wake when they find out I'm goofing around. That would be totally lame. And, actually, has been done and done horribly--to the consternation of all involved.

Here is guy at Techcrunch, though, who knows the biz and gives his views and advice. So have at it folks and let me know. For the scoffers out there: where do you plan to meet "the one true love of my life"? Why not expand the possibilities?

Landis Wins

Congratulations to the Discovery Team for working together to make more cycling history.

Friendly Advertising

Hi all! Happy Sunday, hope you're enjoying the weekend.

You'll notice that I've added some advertising to the side. I'm experimenting. The top box is what Amazon comes up with based on my content. This should be interesting. The second and third boxes are the Bed-wetting gadget and Claire Berlinski's book.

A note of explanation: the bedwetting gadget is fantastic. It worked with my autistic son in one week. I was so disappointed I didn't find it sooner. A client of mine used it with her son. It worked after one night with one accident two weeks in and then bed-wetting O-V-E-R. If you know someone whose family struggles with this, please, please tell them about this little doo-hickey. It works via a sensor in placed in a panty-liner in the child's underwear. The first hint of moisture, if you spit on it, it will deliver a buzz and alarm that could wake the dead which is attached to the child's shirt. It must be turned off by him or her. It works. Follow the directions. It will work.

The Claire Berlinski book is a must read. I've harped on it. Now, I've made it easy to get.

I'll change the recommended stuff every now and again. Further down, there are some random offerings falling into these categories: politics & Tolkien, family and alternative health. Ha! We'll see what the Amazon metrics comes up with. Pay attention. They'll change.

What Nerds Do When No One Is Looking

It's exactly what you think. Comic books and philosophy, weird virtual reality characters and lots of talking about sex, but little actual you know.... Flame wars are fun--Jeff Goldstein is the prime political satire Nerdicus extraordinaire. But then there are uber Nerds like Joss Whedon and Warren Ellis going at it in a comments thread and ending in a loving, intimate embrace. Witness this flamewar and take a peak into a virtual reality I just don't have enough time to inhabit. Pity, that.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Politicized Non-Science

Also via Betsy's Page (so many smart, well-read people on the net, that I don't have to be everywhere all the time--they do it for me!) this link to an Michael Fumento's Opinion at the Washington Times:

Sometimes it prints easily falsifiable studies, such as this, attacking the usefulness of ASCs. Other times it falsely promotes ESCs. That culminated in January when the journal had to retract two groundbreaking ESC studies that proved frauds.
The journal wants to flood unpromising ESC research with taxpayer dollars because private investors know how unpromising it is. Yet again Science has showcased the scientific and moral bankruptcy of the entire ESC advocacy movement.

I have written over and over about ESC alternatives. The Embronic Stem Cell movement is a red herring. The press loves to frame the President as a narrow-minded rube, but the fact is, he is sparing tax payer dollars. He knows that the science with potential (adult stem cells, chord and placental stem cells) is being funded privately.

The ESC debate is political not scientific.

Open Mic Bush

The Anchoress notes what he really said: "Tell Merkel to put ME on the spot." (Not him.)

H/T Betsy's Page

Firefly on the Web

NBC is putting a failed TV series on the web. Why not the Firefly series? I know I would pay to watch it. Each episode is better than 99% of the movies I watch. I just read a poll on the Firefly Fan site that over 60% of fans there would spend $50 or more/year to finance the show. I know I would. Since only 17,000 people voted, and say they all contributed $50, that would be only 8.5 million. There are people who would donate more (me). That's how desperate for decent entertainment I am. And guess what? With all the buzz and being the first series on I-Tunes (not repeats--the first series). It would go bananas. At least that's how I see it. (Firefly Movie is awesome, too. Buy, don't rent, it.)

And the reason I would support such an endeavor? Don't get me started on Pirates of the Carribean II. It sucked. Johnny Depp saved the movie from complete crap-dom. The ending was ridiculous. I see the future and it's stupid. And yet, it is successful.

These are the days when I weep for the future.

Boy Crisis

Actually, I wasn't going to link to this, highlighted by Glenn Reynolds, because it's old news. Schools are modelled now for girls or very mature boys (and how many mature boys do you know? men?). Right.

Because the P.C. view is treat everyone same-same, no matter the problem on the one hand, or label someone dysfunctional on the other hand, kids either get underchallenged and undereducated or simply left behind. Let's see autism, aspergers, ADHD, ADD, manic-depression, depression, anxiety, and a host of other problems will land a kid in Special Ed where the expectations and accountability is so low, kids get stuck in educational hell for years, maybe their whole career with no escape. At 18 they are dumped on society with no skills and no education and despising institutions of learning.

There is a boy crisis. There are a number factors and most will tick different constituencies off. Oh well. Boys need:

1. Activity. It's called recess. It's called twenty push-ups when they goof off. Recess is now routinely taken away from kids as punishment. Aren't these educators the ones so glib about no spanking? Aren't these the people who value "positive reinforcement"? Huh. That's not what I see. I see punishment for everything at schools. And the punishment is cruel to everyone, but especially to boys. Get their bodies busy. Parents aren't left off the hook either. Afraid of telling their beasts "no" or just plain tired, parents allow their kids to sit like automotons in front of the tube, watching stupidness or playing video games. Boys need to be outside, running around and playing.
   
2. Fathers. Shocking, I know. Boys need a man to model themselves after. Men tend to have two emotions: happy and anger. It's a matter of intensity. When afraid, they get pissed off. For men, it is emotion management. The more highly evolved guys show more range, but not much. Boys need to learn to manage how they feel. When they see a father not hit, when upset, they learn to restrain themselves, too. When they see their father give a hug for encouragement, they learn that it is okay for a guy to hug. A mother saying "it's okay to hug" does not hold the same power as actually seeing a man hugging. This is obvious, people. Why must it be spelled out? The other extreme--whiny, sniveling, "expressive" boys is unproductive. These boys will be scorned in the real world. Can we just acknowledge the differences, folks? Men, how many of you feel comfortable weeping to your boss? That's what I thought. We don't need to encourage it in young boys, they won't have the chops in the real world.
3. Changed expectations. Not lowered expectations. Certain tasks, though, are developmentally inappropriate. Fine motor, reading comprehension, and artistic expression are (often, not always) delayed in boys. Why must anyone know how to write cursive in second grade? Learning to write is challenging enough for boys. Why all this early pressure on less important things?
4. Mothers. Something for everyone on this list. Boys need their mothers--especially when they are little. While boys may act tougher, my opinion is that boys are more fragile at the early ages--maybe always. Since their emotional breadth isn't sophisticated they need their moms to help explain, interpret and make sense of the world. Contrary to stereotypes, moms often teach the basketball, baseball, etc. They used to be there to do it.
5. Discipline. With everyone working, no one wants to come home and lay down the law. The boy gets older and bristles at any boundaries. At Day Care it is survival of the fittest, most aggressive and domineering. He enters school an emotionally immature, unsettled, agitated kid. The school, besides taking away recess, is impotent. Teachers don't have the time, patience, or ability to deal with the challenging kid. Off to Special Ed he goes. Parents and teachers don't want the hard work of making expectations explicit, enforcing agreements and then deciding consequences. It's tough. Drugs easy. Medication makes the child the problem. 90% of the time, probably more, it is the parents and teachers who are the problem. And of the 90% of the time, it's the parents who don't know what the heck they are doing. There is a reason for this. Many in my generation came out of families who viewed spanking as a pasttime. Spanking, hitting, for everything. Today's parents don't want to raise their kids this way, but have swung to the other end of the pendulum. The kids rule the roost. Kids are very uncomfortable when they rule. They get scared. Their behavior gets worse.
6. Less Homework. So do girls. I cannot tell you how peeved I get having to sit down with a second-grader to do homework after he is totally worn out from school. It was hard enough to sit there for eight hours. Then he has to sit for an hour or two at home? HE IS FRIGGIN EIGHT YEARS OLD! Okay, I'm digressing. But what is up with all the homework? When the school has him for eight-nine hours, there is absolutely no excuse for homework. None. It is counter-productive and makes boys, especially, hate, neigh, despise school and learning in general.
7. Love. All children are sensitive to whether they are loved or not. There is a systemic virus in the public school system and it's called: Boyophobia. The old saying "boys will be boys" at least acknowledged the difference between the sexes. No more. These days "boys will be girls" or boys get left behind. Boys are not inherently defective, contrary to popular notion and funnelling that vibe towards boys is so counterproductive.

Maybe the solution is separate education. A certainly helpful solution would be more men teachers. Although I don't know what man in his right mind would be an elementary teacher with all the potential for false accusations. There is precisely one man teacher at my kids school: the gym teacher. My son loves him. The teacher seems to "get" my son and the rest of the boys, too. The rest of the teachers are women. The place is awash in estrogen. It's a great school. The principal is fantastic. Her staff is exemplary. It is just unbalanced. There needs to be more men.

If a boy doesn't have a man in the house, if a boy doesn't see a man in school, if a boy doesn't go to church (where presumably there are some men leaders), how is he going to learn how to be a good man? So the first men he gets to model are the hyper-male sports coaches in High School or the hyper-female male educators at the college level (not that they all are, but come on, you have to buy, or pretend to buy, the feminist and other p.c. crap to even make it at those levels)? That's assuming the little chap even decides to go to college.

The way things are going, he'll be sitting in his parents basement playing virtual reality games while the world goes by and so does his wasted life.

UN In Cahoots With Hezbollah

There's a history here.

H/T Instapundit

Deb Frisch Hates Jeff Goldstein

The ultimate blogosphere narcissist became a caricature of the lengths someone consumed with identity-politics will go to demonize another who out-thinks and argues them ideologically. Frisch's mental behavior toward Jeff Goldstein is supposedly a lesson for the ages according to Wendy McElroy at Fox News. She says:

So what, beyond bad jokes, can be gleaned from the Great Blogosphere Brawl?

I return to the opening sentence of this column, "[B]logs reveal the emotions churning beneath the surface of hard news." It is not possible to understand the headlines without appreciating what drives this issue into prominence and that attitude into disrepect. The motor is often a raw unrepentant rage that takes no ideological prisoners on either side of the left-right divide.

The rabid them-or-us attitude must not be allowed to guide mainstream advocacy. It should be exposed for what it is: ugly and destructive to everyone.

You know what? Bull crap. I watched the Frish episode unfold. The woman is nuts. Her pathology runs from delusional thinking, to narcissism, to psychopathology, to mania. But even those are just psychobabble labels. (History here.)

Her attacks on Goldstein were ad hominem. She never had an argument. She wasn't funny. She didn't have a wry take. Nothing. I got the feeling, watching her come undone, that she felt entitled to personally attack Goldstein because he is male, heterosexual and a father. Because he is "traditional", he deserved her deep well of hatred. Otherwise, why attack his wife? His child?

He also is successful. He is funny. He is an educator. He is smart. In short, he is and has everything she isn't and lacks. Her obsession indicates envious rage and jealousy. When she wasn't even worthy of Jeff's scorn, the facade--thin sham that it was--fell.

She did not attack ideology so much as she attacked identity. Her life is defined by her identity. The worst form of insult would be to attack someone else's identity. So when she went for the jugular, she went at his person and what he values and she despises most (I'm assuming): his family.

I shudder at the notion that Deb Frisch represents "the left" (if she does, the left is sorrier that I ever imagined) and Jeff Goldstein "the right" and that's where their problems started. That's assuming an substantive exchange. No, Jeff Goldstein represents ideas. Deb Frish finds his ideas abhorent. And since Deb Frisch represents an identity based on feelings but no defendable ideological foundation, when a true argument starts, she has nowhere to go intellectually. So she went to the place most comfortable to her: attacking Jeff's sexuality, attacking his wife's sexuality and, worst of all and most bizarre, attacking his son's sexuality.

Deb Frisch would hate Jeff Goldstein's ideas if she understood them. What she really hates is the notion of a happily married man, with a beautiful child living the professional life she could only dream about. Jeff Goldstein is living the American dream. And that's what she despises.

Via Instapundit

Playing Through The Pain

Americans especially enjoy a story about gutting it up, playing through the pain and overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds to obtain victory. Funny then, that American cyclist, currently in third place in the Tour De France, Floyd Landis hasn't made huge headlines. Well, there's Lance Armstrong's long shadow. And there is competing news. I guess it's a tough time to be a tough guy.

To me the difference between mediocrity and greatness is actually small. Intelligence? Lot's of smart people. Good ideas? Plenty of them. Hard work? That's a big part of it. But the thing that seems to take someone to wild achievement is drive bordering on obsession. This single-mindedness blocks out the pain, pushes through the adversity and denies failure.

Gates Flushes 250 Million Down the Toilet

A cure for the common cold eludes scientists and yet, somehow, with lots of money the HIV virus will be easier to solve. Not.

I would love for HIV to be vanquished, the sooner the better. I just wonder at the logic of all this.

Antibiotics for Runny Nose

Worthless. I will keep beating this drum. Antibiotics are overused and abused, people. We need them to work. Stop using them for frivolous reasons. Don't eat meat that has been fed antibiotics. Discourage antibiotic use everywhere and then we will have them when we need them.

Pacifism

Some of my readers are committed pacifists. They believe that their citizenship is not of this world--else they would fight. I once believed this notion. Here is some thoughts on the subject by Dr. Sanity. Please come back for comments.

Bryan Texas Makes Government Fun

Passionate Users shows how to make products and services helpful and useful by being fun. Great ideas!

Buddhism is Christianity?

The Anchoress links to an interesting essay by Patrick O'Hannigan who questions Thich Nhat Nahn's arguments while discussing Buddhism and Christianity. The whole concept of "Oneness" and enlightenment, and even salvation get evaluated. Flannigan quotes here philosophy professor Peter Kreeft:

"We shall use 'Eastern' and 'Western' here in an oversimplified way in order to make our main point as simple as possible...the West claims that the East is wrong on some points, and the East claims that there is no such thing as being wrong. A Hindu can believe everything, including Christianity, as a partial truth, or a stage along the way to total truth. Even contradictory ideas can be accepted as true: the stumbling block of East-West dialogue is the law of noncontradiction. The East's argument is that its notion of truth includes the West's, but not vice-versa; that the East is inclusive, the West exclusive. This is probably the main reason for the great popularity of Eastern religions in the West today, especially on an informal, unofficial level. Not many Americans are Hindus, but most prefer the Hindu notion of truth to the Western one, at least in religion."

Hanh confirms the accuracy of that summation by Kreeft and his co-author, one Ron Tacelli: "For a Buddhist to be attached to any doctrine, even a Buddhist one, is to betray the Buddha," Hanh writes.

O'Hannigan goes to the heart of circular Buddhist thinking:

Somewhere over the Pacific, and well before I realized that Hanh subscribed to a worldview that gave him a pass on the law of noncontradiction, I wondered how Hanh would square the notion of non-self with the well-known injunction of one Zen master to his student, "when you meet the Buddha, kill him!" On its face, that doesn’t seem to be the most enlightened advice. But as Hanh points out, a Buddha is anyone who is awake. Siddhartha, the original Buddha, showed the way, but in Buddhist thought, we're all potential Buddhas. In that light, Jesus was a Buddha, too, although of course he never identified himself as such. And what the Zen master of the harsh advice meant, Hanh says, is that "the student should kill the Buddha concept in order for him to experience the real Buddha directly."

Westerner that I am, Hanh’s explanation strikes me as something of a dodge. Given the non-self constraints in which Buddhism is working, wouldn’t the “real Buddha” be as ephemeral as any other self? Killing the Buddha is a waste of time if the Buddha is not really there, in a way that dying to self or emulating a grain of wheat (“if it die, it will yield a rich harvest”) are not wastes of time for Christians.

My problem with Buddhism is that the notion of nothingness, no attachment, no desire is just a mask for nihilism. It doesn't matter anyway, so who cares? This foundation allows stupid beliefs to flourish: I am born at this level therefore I stay at this level. Women are lesser, therefore I must accept society's expectations.

Futility and helplessness suffuse this system. If we are all one, and the same at that, if we are all Buddha or Christ, then why do the heavy lifting? I mean really, let someone else be good. I'll be the bad "balance". And why not?

Iraq Soldier Sacrifice

Gateway Pundit demonstrates the Iraqi soldier's sacrifice. They ARE fighting for their country.

Drudge Won't Budge

Ever since I've had high-speed internet access (about the last two years), my first internet stop has been the Drudge Report. I never gave much time to the MSM on the net at all. Sorry, big guys, but your banal TV coverage is what moved me to the internet to begin with. The extent of MSM-internet coverage were Reuters or AP feeds through Yahoo. Oh, and I would read some European dailies on my Yahoo home page.

Over time, my tastes have expanded. Without naming them all here, it seems that each week I find bloggers whose keen insights and special expertise make them the first stop depending on the issue. War strategy, weather, politics, Iraq servicemen, satire, gender politics, even shoe styles are covered in minute-detail with clearly defined biases. I don't have to guess where someone is coming from--I know. But forget bias for a moment. More important, is that the news is fresher, the take more cogent and well-developed, and the person doing the sharing (very few are even paid) is expert not some talking head whose specialty is nodding sagely.

Why, then, won't Matt Drudge link these blogs? Check that. He has a link to Rosie O'Donnell's blog. I'm linking her for the sake of completeness (a good blog trait) even though I find her blather akin to the rantings of the neighborhood Cat Lady. Why her? He links to Michelle Malkin--but that link started to her column. So, Rosie O'Donnell? That's your connection to Blogland?

Why bring this up now? Drudge linked to this article about how Israelis and Lebanese people are chatting through "the internet". No, they are communicating via blogs. They aren't IMing (on the internet). The aren't writing columns (well, some are). They are posting on each other's blogs. The actual and accessible blogs are far more interesting than an article talking about people talking. Drudge could actually link to those blogs so everyone could see first hand. News in the making. Pajamas Media and The Truth Laid Bear have linked them. The Truth Laid Bear actually has a special feature on Israeli and Lebanese blogs. How about a link there?

I guess there is an Internet heirarchy and Drudge believes that blogs are the internet's nether-regions. He is wrong. Perhaps he's afraid of creating a Blogroll. No doubt, some heavy hitter would be left off and be pissed off and, well, write about it. But the time has come for Matt Drudge to expand his link horizons. There are independent reporters and columnists who enjoy huge audiences and deserve bigger ones. But that isn't the most important reason: he will be even more informative by adding blogs. The time has come.

TCS Daily: Mideast is Shaken and Stirred

How going to Iraq offers the Mideast hope of being free of a major terrorist organization.

H/T Instapundit

Left Leaning Blogger Silent in the Face of Complexity Er. .. Complication

Jennifer Siegel at Forward concludes with this:

"Why would you expect complexity from bloggers, left, right, or Martian?" Wieseltier wrote in an email to the Forward. "They are not in the complexity business on any issue. Maybe the problem is not complexity but complication — the way in which sympathy with Israel's campaign against Hezbollah, and therefore with the use of force, might complicate their lives in progressiveland, where they live."

Conservativism in Germany

You read it right. Betsy's Page says, "Perhaps there is hope for Germany yet."

See? Dear readers? Fair and balanced and all that.

Homage to Hooters A Howler

Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.

Israel's History

I keep thinking, "Ok, that's the last post for the day." But I can't stop before linking to this post by Carl at Israel Matzav (thanks TTLB) giving Israel's history.

I think a little education is in order, so that some of the commenters here can at least base their opinions in fact. Remember my post about the ding-dong Kos diariist Nyceve? As ignorant as Richard Cohen who called the formation of Israel "a mistake", (oh, yes he did) nyceve needs to read this post and bad. American Jews could at least be educated about their heritage before waxing elephant about Jewish amorality and the moral superiority of "Palestinians". (Read the article, you'll understand why I put the word in quotes.)

He concludes:

Israel is neither a mistake nor a crime. It is the beginning of the culmination of more than 2000 years of Jewish yearning to return to our homeland. The manner in which the Jewish people has chosen to govern the Land of Israel has its faults. But being a 'mistake' created in 'Arab land' - let alone being a 'crime' - is not among those faults. We Jews have to learn to stop listening to liberals like Cohen and to start fighting - with God's help - for our existence. Hopefully, the current battle marks a turning point.

Zombie's Revealing Pictures

Via Little Green Footballs, please go to Zombie and watch his work.

Austin Bay: Updates on the U.S. Evacuation Efforts in Lebanon

Things are progressing now, but this is no easy task.

Jeff Goldstein Attracts A Wilson Volleyball: Glenn Greenwald

Greenwald posted under a pseudonym "Wilson" and got caught. For his part, Greenwald implies that his partner rebutted misrepresentations about him from his IP address. Surrrre, Glenn. We believe you. More frivolous, silly blogland stuff, but funny entertainment anyway.

I almost hesitate to post this, since last time I mentioned Goldstein my thanks was a Denial of Service, but it's a risk I'll take. You guys need a laugh.

Hezbollah's North American Activity

Go here to read more.

H/T Michelle Malkin

Dignified Jobs

Ann Althouse writes about director Kevin Smith's "charmingly un-Hollywood" opinions about middle-aged service workers. Her commenters note that there was a time when it was honorable to be a Gas Station Attendent or a Movie Theater Usher or Waitress. Now, it these jobs are viewed with scorn or as the perview of teenagers or "others".

My sister-in-law with a Masters in Literature, teaches High School Lit and makes more money in the summers working a restaurant on weekend evenings. What's so bad about waitressing? I don't get it.

Gateway Pundit: Three Interesting Stories

First, he covers a musician nearly beat to death by a peace activist--one of Saddam's human shields. The 19 year old has come out of his coma and is experiencing a miracle recovery.

Second, he notes that Bush seems to be getting better approval ratings since he revealed his potty mouth. What? No more "lowest numbers ever" headlines? How discouraging to be a Newspaper editor these days.

Third, he reveals how a terrorist plot was thwarted by concerned Iraqi citizens. Now that's progress!

19 Minutes: Plenty of Time With A Kid

It's the quality not the quanity. Sheesh! How old-fashioned can you be?

A Tempest with a Crackpot

Chiropractors rate happiest of all doctors (Dentists and Psychiatrists rate unhappiest--surprised?). Perhaps this is why:

A woman police officer was thrown through a glass door after she stripped off and jumped into bed with a chiropractor and his mistress, a court has heard.

.......................................and


Tempest said: 'I kissed Matt goodnight and went upstairs on my own. I got undressed and got into bed just wearing my lace shorts.

'Matt came into the bedroom and got undressed and got into bed with me wearing his boxer shorts.

'Then Louise came into the bedroom. She took her clothes off down to her panties and bra then climbed into the bed on my side, so I was in the middle.

'I felt very uncomfortable about it. I loudly whispered to Matt that she had got into the bed because I wasn't sure if he'd realised and to let him know how uneasy I was that we were all in that position.

'Louise got out of bed quite in a hurry. She stormed downstairs, quite upset at something.'

Tempest said she and Dr Hunter followed her downstairs to the kitchen because they thought they had heard her fall.

'I told Louise she was welcome to stay at our house, just not in our bed. Louise was very angry and shouting at me,' Tempest said.

'She was saying, 'Why do you come here when you know he's married with children? Who the hell do you think you are?'

'Louise was really upset. What her intentions on Matt were, I can't say.

'She was so angry and she had her fists clenched. I felt frightened, intimidated and shocked. I thought she was going to hit me.

'I remained as calm as I could. She was shouting at me for three or four minutes. I stepped back away from her. Louise stepped forward.

'I looked at Matt but he didn't intervene. Then I pushed her on the shoulders with both hands and she stumbled back into the kitchen door.'

Weeping, Tempest, of Walsall, added: 'I didn't intend to hurt her. I'm sorry I hurt her.'

My, my, my! Better patient outcomes, better hours, better quality of life, happy and now this. It's a wonder everyone doesn't want to be a Chiropractor.

Spain: Anti-Semitism Is Back

Have you thought that after the atrocities of World War II that nothing like this could ever happen again? And yet, in Spain, the "menace in Europe" as Claire Berlinski describes it, rises again. If you haven't read her book, you need to.

A few months ago, I wrote an article stating that European Jews may want to start looking into a different home. (More here and here .) This view was resoundly renounced by German nationals and some German American citizens here through private e-mails to me. I stand by the assessment. Europe is reverting to type, but the manifestation looks and feels different, so it is more insidious. That is, overt anti-semitism is cloaked by dismissing Muslim aggression against Jews. White Europeans use a Pro-Arab stance to hide their anti-Jewish discrimination. All this does not bode well for Jews.

As the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah/Syria/Iran become more pronounced, expect other "moderate", "sophisticated" European leaders and the general population to reveal their true beliefs.

Aaron Is Alive, Miracles Happen

UPDATE: Hi friends! Thank you AmbassadorUniversity.com for linking here. I will try to post weekly updates. Aren't the kiddos cute? Even yummier in person.

If you are new to my blog, my main topics are politics and health with lots of everything throw in for good measure. Like everyone, the Israel-Hezbollah war concerns me and I'm writing about it all the time. Check here, here, here, and here. A couple of favorite posts: Blackberry Addiction and my life in Pedometer hell.





Nearly three weeks ago now, a friend from my childhood years, Aaron Wiley, dove into a lake where he was swimming with his seven and five year old sons (he had scoped the dive area ahead of time but landed just past the part he scoped out) into four feet of water. He dove so hard his head was stuck in sand. The first cervical vertabrae, the Atlas, was shattered. And yet he pushed himself out, and with head hanging told his boys to run around the lake and "get help. This is an emergency."

One son stayed with his dad. The other ran for help. Aaron knew he had broken his neck. He said that when his head was stuck in the sand thoughts "raced through his head". "All I could think of was Rhonda and the boys," he said.

Help came. At the lake there were two nurses and an EMT. They took Aaron to deeper water, stabilized his body and waited for the ambulance. He then was carried precariously, over a narrow path to the ambulance. Before getting on the ambulance, he grabbed his brother-in-law's hand,"If something happens, take care of them." They both started crying.

Aaron is, as the Chief Neurologist flatly stated, a miracle. You can see from the pictures that he is indeed alive. His Atlas is still shattered, into many, many pieces characteristic of a Burst Fracture from the CAT scan I looked at, but he is alive. The bones are healing. A feeling of stunned awe still hangs at his house. Alive.

One move. One bone flying the wrong direction and he would be dead. All the wobbling and transferring and handling by untrained helpers and a nervous intern and others could have resulted in death. Not paralysis. Death. You see, the respiratory center is just at the level of the Atlas. One cut and the brainstem is damaged and you stop breathing. It could still happen. He's wearing a halo, as you can see, but if he falls or trips, he could die. That's not going to happen.

Lot's of little graces have filled his family's life. His employer is working with him, since he has no disability insurance, so he still has a job. His father-in-law sells beds that have lifts and can bend--you know those Craftmatics you see on infomercials. Face it. You know you laughed. Well, those are very nice beds to have with a neck injury. His wife can be with him. His church is feeding him. His friends love him and call him and encourage through letters.

To make him feel better, the other doc and I beat him at cards tonight. No mercy for the gimp, we said. Over the next nine weeks, there will be plenty of time for getting it back.

In a blink and an instant, my friend went from enjoying a swim on his family vacation to Virginia to nearly paralyzed, or worse, dead. A hair's breath from death. He is weeks away from his 39th birthday. A young man. A family man. And, I know him. A good man.

So today there is a family who needs prayers. They are all still trying to integrate the experience. It is tough. Remembering. Reliving the fear. The what ifs? The let down after the trauma passes. It's a lot and it's not easy. The boys witnessed their father nearly die. They helped save his life. They will never be the same.

And remember to thank God, too. Miracles happen. I played cards with one tonight.

The "Israel Lobby"

Australian Broadcasting Company publishes the transcript of American professors who believe that U.S. foreign policy is being driven by the "Israel Lobby". Before I get into this further, what country doesn't have a lobby? The U.S. is the Super Power that everyone, if they are smart, wants to befriend (or at least not tick off). The fact that Israel has a lobby in Washington D.C. is hardly noteworthy. Not to mention, we are allies. These professors would argue that this is a chicken-egg question. Would we have such a close relationship if it weren't for the insidious Lobby? No, not according to them.

MARGOT O'NEILL: Since the Six Day War in 1967, the key to American foreign policy in the Middle East has been Washington's relationship with Israel. The problem is that there's no longer any compelling moral or strategic reasons for such a policy, or so argues John Mearsheimer - a West Point graduate, former air force officer and now a senior professor of politics at the University of Chicago. But his argument is considered so controversial that when he and Professor Stephen Walt - the academic dean of the Kennedy School of Politics at Harvard University - tried to publish a critique of the Israel lobby in the United States, they were forced to go to England instead.

PROFESSOR JOHN MEARSHEIMER, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: We couldn't get the piece published, it, therefore, had to be published outside of the United States.

MARGOT O'NEILL: The article, entitled The Israel Lobby, first appeared in March this year, in the London Review of Books. Professor Mearsheimer says he wasn't surprised that he and Stephen Walt were almost immediately attacked by leading American lawyer Alan Dershowitz as being anti-Semitic.

PROFESSOR JOHN MEARSHEIMER: Well, we referred to charge of anti-Semitism in the piece as the 'great silencer'. What happens is that when individuals criticise Israel or organisations criticise Israeli policy, what almost axiomatically happens is those individuals are called anti-Semitic or if they're Jewish, they're labelled 'self-hating Jews'.

MARGOT O'NEILL: The article argues that because of the Israel lobby, US-Middle East policy is unbalanced and has undermined American and Western security.

PROFESSOR JOHN MEARSHEIMER: Well, the fact is, in the American political system, it's very easy for well-organised interest groups to penetrate the American political process and to influence particular policies. This is true if you look at an organisation like the National Rifle Association. Most Americans are in favour of gun control but the NRA, which is a rather small organisation in terms of the size of its membership, is very effective at lobbying Congress and lobbying the Executive Branch to get its way. And the same basic story applies to the Israel lobby.

MARGOT O'NEILL: Former US ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, is named as being part of the loose coalition making up the Israel lobby, but he vehemently rejects what he says is Mearsheimer and Walt's implication of a Jewish conspiracy to subvert American foreign policy.

MARTIN INDYK, FORMER US AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: People say, well, if they're positing this kind of conspiracy, then they're really verging on anti-Semitism because of the way in which conspiracy theories have been generated to - like, in particular to the protocols of the elders of Zion - to generate anti-Semitism.

MARGOT O'NEILL: But Martin Indyk acknowledges the power of the lobby in Congress.

MARTIN INDYK: Yes, they do have influence in Congress, and yes, congressmen, in particular, because they're up for re-election every two years, do think twice about whether they're going to cast an anti-Israel vote because they don't want to have the wrath of this powerful lobby come down on them.

My question: if Isrel shouldn't be our biggest ally? Then who should be?

NY Sun Says Israel Fighting Iranians in Lebanon

Read more here.

Dearborn, Michigan 10,000 Arabs March to Stop Zionist Terrorists

Local Jews will counter demonstrate tonight at 7 p.m. It is possible to be pro-Lebanon and pro-Israel. These Muslim demonstrators just can't seem to grasp nuance.

Saying that Israel is killing children and bombing innocent citizens, one of the speakers, Osama Siblani of the Congress of Arab-American Organizations, said, "This is terror." The crowd cheered loudly in response. "They are cowards."

"We know that the president is being bought by the Zionist lobby. We know that the (U.S.) Congress is being bought by the Zionist lobby. ... But we know that the American people are a great people," he said.

Some of those views concern many in the Jewish communities of metro Detroit.

Well, at least we're great people. You know, I'm sick of supposed citizens talking about America in the third-person. "Americans are great people." Aren't you an American? Oh, that's right. You're Muslim. You're not-so-patiently waiting for the world to submit to your religion.

Just In Case You Think The U.S. Isn't Lumped With Israel

We are. Not that we mind, of course. If we are to believe the cwazy Hezbollah cats, the U.S. is get hers soon, too.

You really must stay up-to-date at Pajamas Media. They are doing a phenomenal job of staying on top of Mid-East developments. Forget the TV. Tiny piece-o-da-pie. Get the whole thing, commercial-free.

US Hezbollah Sympathizers

While nursing my mini-depression, I didn't get out on the net much. So now, Michelle Malkin shows pictures of Hezbollah demonstrations in the USA with signs like "Islam will triumph" and "Death to Israel".

On our own land. I almost said "unbelievable". But it isn't, is it? How long until the relativistic, moral equivalence, political correct, cultural corrupters acknowledge the dark side of their "everything is okay" stance? That's right never.

Us and them. Americans against Americans--or those who would use the freedom of America to impose intolerance, domination and discrimination in Allah's name. The only reason these ass-clowns can demonstrate is freedom. Go back to from whence you came.

Sheesh. I organize my phone book while this happens. (Actually it happened July 13.)

Maxed Out Mama: Lebanon Tragedy or Comedy?

It's funny 'til someone loses an eye. Or a life.

Reclaiming Phonebooks: Changing the World One Phone Number At A Time

The existential crisis continues. To solve it, I decided that concrete accomplishments that make the world a better place are in order. This lead me to a lovely old-fashioned task: filling the new phone book.

You see, the past year my Sprint cell phone, (model discontinued, curious, that) persnicky beast that she is, intermittantly decides to turn off and cease to function. Just as unpredictably, she turns herself back on. Most of the time a dull, black screen stares at me. Every once in a while, she gets animated and BAM! Lists about twenty missed calls from the last month. This is great for business. It is at these times that I hate her and am tempted to throw her into a wall and smash her to pieces. Instead, as punishment, I give her to my toddler who promptly slobbers all over her. She deserves it. I think she's just bitchy because she knows I lust for this sleek little number. Forget economy, I want function and form.

I've tried to fix my Sprint clam-shell. She spent two weeks at the Sprint store. The clerk there figured out it wasn't my fault the thing didn't work. They changed out some bits and pieces and said, "Would you like us to try to transfer over your phone numbers?"

Me: Wah.....?

Clerk: Yeah, there is no guarantee, but we might be able to get some of your phone entries on your new phone. About a 50-50 chance.

Me:

Clerk: We had to fix it.

Me: Might?

It was at that moment that technology was hurting me and I cursed it to damnation. (At least my prissy uncooperative phone, that is.) Seeing that I had become a witless victim, I decided to go crazy reactionary and buy a phone book. Streamline things.

There's the church registry, the school registries, the dance, the martial arts, the professional, the neighborhood watch, the friends and family . Too much information, too many places. A book here, a paper there, some on the cell phone. My home, my life needed phone number therapy.

Today my phone numbers have been alphabetized, categorized and therapized. If you are important, or marginally interesting, you have been entered into Dr. Melissa Clouthier's phone book.

The lines are big (Who am I kidding here? Middle age beckons--it's either write bigger or get those funny tip-o-the-nose glasses). The lines are clear. The book has room for growth. A lot of riff-raff got culled. When you don't know who the person is in your Franklin planner, honey, it's time to be banished from the list.

Triumphant might be too strong a word for how I feel. Frankly, I'm too damn tired to feel like I've conquered anything. My accomplishment bar is set so low these days, it's almost embarassing that I even feel a vague sense of self-esteem. And yet, I do.

Guess what? Still own the bitchy phone. But double guess what? She can kiss my rear. I have a phone book now with all those number in it and then some. The only thing she has left to hold over me is the fact that she doesn't really work well or that much. But that's a problem for another day. My helplessness at potential loss, my hopelessness in the face of capricious technology banished! Hah!

Today I changed the world. My world. One phone number at a time.

I Hate Housework

You notice the posting is light today? Well, this morning I've been busying myself with "reality-based" chores. Laundry--five loads. Dishes--two loads. Sweeping. Wiping. Cleaning.

And you know what? Lunch undid it all. The formerly immaculate kitchen lasted for all of five minutes. This, my friends, is the dark, ugly side of staying at home. While I peel a grape off the floor, my mind wanders existentially..... contemplating when peeling a grape implied different things, you know?

Some days, the best I can do is to not be a bad mother. In fact, you wouldn't believe how lofty a goal that is at times. Forget the positive: "today, I'm going to make mothering history!" Just gettin' by can be quite the accomplishment.

So, I could throw out the juice box and wipe down the high chair and sweep the floor, again. Or, I could rearrange the office. Or take care of those phone calls. Or, I could put my feet up and read for a bit while the kid takes a nap. Which do you think I'll choose?

Of Cleavage and Crass Language

The Anchoress cuts Hillary some slack about her lovely cleavage. I agree. She looks nice. That doesn't mean that I agree with her about let's see......anything much at all.

Lot's of snickering and moralizing have surrounded the President's use of the expletive "shit". Who gives a shit? Frankly I don't. Actually, it bothered me more that the man didn't chew his food first and swallow it before blabbing to Blair. As an aside, this snafu reminds me of my red-neck uncle (and this will be the only time I quote the man, ever, in this blog) saying "people want me to say chicken poop, but there's no such thing. Ever smelled it? It's shit. Chicken shit."

Colorful language doesn't bother me. I know. As a "good" girl I should be more worried. But you know what? Sometimes cussing just fits where "civilized" language seems well, uncivilized in context.

For example, when I called my dear friend to tell him that my husband had cancer, his response was a vehement, "SON OF A BITCH!" He didn't say, "Oh that's really too bad. I feel soo sad." Thank God! (And I mean it. I'm not taking His name in vain.)

Which leads me to my cussing compass: swear words, in context are okay . Even a F-bomb well-placed for emphasis doesn't bother me. I know, I have lots to repent for. You have no idea. Some words are so bad they should not be used: C**t, N*****r, etc.

And taking God's name in vain, using it in conversational language like some pea-brained Valley-girl is wrong. When I call on God's name, I want him to listen. When I need him most, I want Him to pay attention not ignore me because I've been crying wolf over and over for ages.

Jeff Goldstein's Conspiracy Theories

They are worthy of your time. No, I'm not going to tell you them, lazy reader, you must click the link yourself and then click back to comment. I know. I ask a lot.

The Academy Receives More Scorn

Ann Althouse talked about how her institution of higher learning made it easy for "right wingers" to make fun of it. The worst example, among many, of despicable behavior by our intellectually elites comes from Duke University. Read more at the History News Network. There, the professors, 69 of them, vilified Duke lacrosse students’ accused of rape before hearing the matter. No surprise that those doing the vilifying can be described thusly:

The 69 permanent faculty signatories included only two professors in math, just one in the hard sciences, and zero in law. (It would have been difficult indeed for a law professor to have signed a statement deeming irrelevant "the results of the police investigation.") Of the permanent signatories, 58—an astonishing 84.1 percent—describe their research interests as related to race, class, or gender (or all three), in some cases to an extent bordering on caricature. One Group of 88 member stated that his current project "argues that unless we attempt to read racialized trauma according to a more Freudian, Lacanian understanding for subjectivity we will continue to misunderstand why racial stigma persists and, more generally, why the laws humans create to protect against forms of discrimination leave in place a notion of the racialized subject as emptied of interiority and the psychical." Another reasoned that "it was not merely military mobilization . . . that paved the path to war [in Iraq] but a highly gendered war talk." An example? Laura Bush’s late 2001 comments about the plight of Afghan women, which “furthered the [U.S.] imperial project in her highly gendered appeal to a world conscience.” A third signatory, after beginning her career exploring "postmodernist theory about the individual and the body," is now " working on a new project critiquing animal rights from speciesist perspective."

But here is what really bothers me: how many members of the academy are there at Duke? That no one from the math, science, business, law, or even one or two professors among the liberal arts crowd stood for defending the students until proven guilty speaks volumes about the tyranny of political correctness within the academy. That the coach himself threw the team under the bus and then resigned reveals the insidious malignancy of cherished, clichéd beliefs. Why, the pusillanimity demonstrated in the face of calumny came so fast, so easy, one wonders how the coach inspired a fighting spirit in his players.

Intellectual no-talents and crack-pots will always be part of the education world. They are attracted to the stage and captive audience. Students are often held hostage in required courses for their majors. But other professors? They could at least defend the moral high ground, if not the accused. And in case anyone in these institutions wonder: the moral high ground is innocent until proven guilty especially a case with so many dubious elements.

H/T Instapundit

Expect More Iatrogenic Deaths

Medical doctors will kill more patients because their education in pharmacology continues to decline while the complexity of meds and pathways increase. It's a "worldwide problem".

Journal of American Medical Association: Duped Again

Doctors don't disclose drug company industry ties when they publish "research". Here's what happened:

"Authors should always err on the side of full disclosure," she wrote in her response.

Dr. Tobias Kurth, the study's lead author, said the researchers were not trying to mislead the journal. He said they believed their financial ties were irrelevant because the study does not promote drug treatment, but rather reports a potential link between women with severe migraines and an increased risk of heart attacks.

"They do not represent a conflict of interest," he said in a telephone interview.

Kurth, a scientist at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital, said he has received research funding from the makers of Bayer aspirin, Tylenol and Advil — pain relievers sometimes used to treat migraines.

Really? No conflict, huh? How about the drug companies want to find links so that women with migraines start taking prophylactic Bayer? A whole new market for an old, old drug: Salycitic Acid is born. To claim that there is no conflict is laughable.

Happens all the time, folks. That's why nearly 50% of medical journals are contradictory bunk. The key is finding out which 50% is bunk. Good luck with that one.

Quote of the Day

"When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice."
- Marquis de la Grange

Now, that's the truth.

Anchoress Covers Story of Afghani's Thanks for President Bush

It is a must read. A guy spent a year in hiding to hand craft a rug for President Bush. With all the bad news, good news like this is welcome.

LaShawn Barber Asks, "What in the Fallen World?"

Her answers, especially about reparations, are worth reading. Why don't I read her more? She's getting added to my blogroll post-haste. She says this:

Bottomline: Blacks already receive reparations with every lowered standard, every welfare check, every skin color-entitlement government contract, every race-based program subsidized by taxpayers, and every politically correct doctrine that seeks to suppress honest discussions on race and encourage others to apply different standards to black Americans in just about every area of American life.

If only reparations would stop the complaints, excuse-making, pandering, envy, and hostility! I would be the loudest proponent, donating my share to the poorest of the poor, shouting from the rooftop, “Thank God for this cash, for now my people are free, satiated by the ultimate government check!”

But we all know money is not the answer, nor will it ever change human nature.

She adds this:

So…that’s why I’m bored with politics, which is merely a small part of the cosmic struggle to get our way with as little effort as possible. That’s what the GOP’s hunt for the “black vote” is all about, that’s why the immigration debate rages (a cheap and servile labor force, maximum profits v. the rule of law, preservation of American culture), that’s why some black folks are clamoring for more government hand-outs, and that’s why some whites are willing to give it to them, hoping they’ll go the heck away and stop all the “woe is us” whining.

Tell me, readers, what in the fallen world is going on besides wars, rumors of wars, the destruction of a great country, and the loud (and wrong) call for more hand-outs?

I especially love her description of the immigration debate: "a cheap and servile labor force, maximum profits v. the rule of law, preservation of American culture". Could it be said any better?

The Truth Laid Bear Highlights Bloggers

For all the latest info and insight from Lebanon and Israel by Lebanese and Israeli citizens, go visit this link at The Truth Laid Bear. You have no exuse, and that includes you, nyceve, for not understanding the complexities of the region.

Seth Godin Gives Typeface (Font) Advice

My advice? Take his advice.

The Manolo He Has Been Ripped Off by Baube!

And by Nieman Marcus no less! Ayyyyyyy! Read more of the Baube tragedy here.

And, for further amusement, read his advice to the "friend" of a cocktail waitress with Size 11 flat feet. I doubled over laughing.

Allah Says: Canada Greenlights Terrorists for Travel

No, this is not a joke. Read more here. He reports:

Not an exaggeration. I understand that racial profiling can be abused, I understand that the U.S. watch list is a bit, shall we say, overinclusive. But, um…

It’s every joke you’ve ever heard about Canadian politeness, times a million:

Being a member of a terrorist organization won’t necessarily land someone on Canada’s no-fly list, The Canadian Press has learned…

“You cannot be put on the list on the sole basis that you’re a member of a ‘terrorist group,’” the source said. “In addition, you have to be a demonstrable threat to aviation safety.”

The source said that under the proposed regulations, people involved in a terrorist group — either now or in the past — could be added to the list only if there were reason to suspect they may “compromise civil aviation, the security of any aircraft or aerodrome, or the safety of the public, passengers or crew.”

My favorite quote? "You have to be a demonstrable threat to aviation safety." I guess run of the mill terrorists intent on blowing up buildings upon landing are a-ok. Crazy, 'eh?

Power Grid Problems

Drudge leads with this screamer: Power Crunch, Heat Wave Deepens: Will the Grids Hold?
Sounds like a headline for the Lois Lane newspaper, The Daily Planet.

The answer, say power companies, according to this MSNBC article is to conserve energy. How, exactly should we do that to help? The article doesn't say, so I did some sleuthing. Here is what I found:

Energy Saving Tips

Conserve Energy and Reduce Your Summer Home Electric Bill Now

• Turn off unneeded lights. Avoid lighting an empty room and take advantage of natural light whenever possible.
• Turn up the thermostat. Set your thermostat to 78°F when you are home and 85°F or off when you are away. Save 1 to 3% per degree on your summer electric bill, for each degree the thermostat is set above 72°F.
• Use appliances wisely. To help prevent electricity outages, use major appliances before noon or after 7 p.m.
• Use the warm- or cold-water setting to wash clothes. Use cold water to rinse clothes. Save up to 4%.
• Line-dry your clothes. Save up to 5%.
• Run full loads if you need to use the clothes dryer. Use the moisture-sensing setting and clean the lint trap after each use. Save 0.5%.
• Run the dishwasher only when it is fully loaded. Turn off the dry cycle and air-dry dishes. Save 1%.
• Reduce the operating time of your pool filter and automatic pool-cleaning sweep, and operate them only before noon or after 7 p.m. Save 1 to 2% on your summer electric bill for each hour of reduction.

The biggest thing seems to be upping the temp in your house. This is good advice. I've heard that for your A/C's health that the temp set in the house should never be more than 20 degrees different than the outdoor temperature. Yah, right. Here in Houston, we'd have house temperatures around 85 degrees for most of August and September.

Anyway, good luck!

Austin Bay on the Complexities Israel Faces

Read the whole thing. Via Instapundit.

Kelo and Blogs

Instapundit points to blog coverage of the Kelo Decision by the Supreme Court. This was the decision where just about anyone can take your home if someone else thinks it's important for the "common good." When you're tempted to believe the high court is smarter than average citizens, read this decision. You will either feel smarter or worry at SCOTUS ignorance.

Ann Althouse on Academic Follies

The Academy's molly coddling of wack-jobs continues to amuse and piss off average Americans. A couple thoughts she doesn't consider:

1. It is irritating because average tax payers are paying for the nonsense.
2. It is irritating because average tax payers must then cut off their right arm and leg to afford the tuition at such "esteemed" institutions for their beloved progeny.
3. It is irritating because average tax payers must then listen to their previous cogent child prattle on about the nonsense presented as fact at the academy.
4. It is irritating because the pursuit of knowledge is hardly the goal. And that seems bothersome considering it's college and all.

And on another note. The piece concludes with this statement: And it's no wonder right wingers find rich raw material to exploit. Average people don't consider themselves "right wingers". Common sense is common because everyone possesses it. College campuses receive broad scorn, the most vocal may be right wingers, because for all their knowledge they never come to the truth. And here, I'm equating truth with common sense. The place seems devoid of it. And, that is irritating.

"I Am A Jew"

WARNING: LONG RANT

I read this essay by nyceve at Daily Kos. Why, oh why, did I go over there? Argghhh! The maudlin prose would have choked me up--if it weren't utter clap trap. Oy vey.

Here is what she says:

First, imagine for a moment, how out-of-whack everything is when I hear extremist Republicans embracing Israel. Do you think nyceve could possibly welcome such an event? It hurts, dear friends that these depraved souls are always among the first to step up and champion the right of Israel to exist whenever it is threatened.

That Israel is aligned with the people I most despise forces me to recognize that Jews are at best tolerated, mostly unwanted by pretty much everyone--except that is, Christian evangelicals who voice support for their own misguided and nefarious reasons. [emphasis added, -ed.]

This sad reality is still true many years after eight million were murdered. Anti-semitism is flourishing throughout the world. We escape the sting of it in the United States. But to deny its existence and that American Jews are blessed to live in a country that still treats us with relative decency, is to deny the obvious

I live in New York, a city where I don't feel as if I need to conceal my identity. But when I leave New York--an hour in any direction, even in the United States of America--I often recognize that though I am an American, being openly Jewish might engender an unwelcome encounter

Notice that nyceve says "people I despise" not people whose ideas she despises. Oh no! She despises evangelicals, those "depraved souls" who support Israel for their "own nefarious reasons." And what are those, exactly? She doesn't spell those out.

She admits that she is "blessed to live in a country that still treats us with relative decency", but worries that "being openly Jewish" an hour outside of New York might "engender an unwelcome encounter." What? My dear girl needs to travel a bit. Lessee, I live deep in the heart of Texas, a (gasp!) conservative, whose very close friend, a Long Island Liberal, or should I say Progressive, Jew (gasp!) is my son's namesake. Double gasp! I live approximately 30 hours outside of New York City. My neighbor two doors down is (gasp again!) Jewish. My neighbor across the street is (double gasp!) Muslim. (To round things out we have Catholics, Methodists and Sabbitarian Christians, for good measure. Ethnically--Mexican, Tighty-Whitey, Italian, Indian, Black, Pakistani.) Yes, it's a scary neighborhood for minorities.

She continues:

It's even more difficult to be Jewish on Daily Kos these days because opinion is clearly running against Israel. But that's okay, I love this place. I love that we speak openly here, that's why I decided to write this inarticulate diary. In truth, I'm not the right person to be writing this because what is playing out is so terribly complex. I don't understand all that is going on, so all I can contribute is a simple explanation from my heart about how an assimilated American Jew views the world.

So as unsafe as the world ouside NYC and LA are for Jews, it's even tougher being on Daily Kos. Now THAT, I believe. That would be because, honey, the anti-semites have taken up residence among the moral-equivalence crowd. Yup, suicide bombers are equal to Israelis defending their nation.

When she plays the baby girl I want to hurl: "I don't understand all that is going on, so all I can contribute is a simple explanation from my heart". Oh, puhleeeze. Read some history, honey. And don't watch the news or read the New York Times for that knowledge. Your purdy little head will spin even more than it already is. She continues:

I'd like to tell myself that the survival of Israel is not relevant in my life. But this wouldn't be true. I'd like to believe that I can divorce myself from my historic identity--but I cannot. This is why I know that as much as I try, I must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel and pray that Israel will be victorious but never cede the moral high ground. And as I write these words, I recognize just this thought alone will enrage many of you. You will likely repond, Israel ceded the moral high ground years ago with its inhumane treatment of the Palestinians. All I can answer is, yes, this is true.

All she can say is "yes, this is true". All I can say is "what kind of Jew are you?" Are you so ignorant of your history that you've bought the relativistic garbage spewed forth? The Palestinians have suffered, true. But their plight didn't sprout in a vacuum. Israel has never ceded the moral ground. Most other countries would have wiped out the cause of consistent agitation. Israel has gone above and beyond. The only thing worse than White Guilt is Jew Guilt. I find it repugnant. Your blood has worked too hard to have intellectually vain and utterly vapid American Jews call for morality from the comfort of their hybrids.

I believe as a Jew, and of course I am speaking for myself, that I am a "guest" in America. As long as things are okay, so am I. But when events get ugly as they are today, then I must pray that the better side of humanity will prevail and the world will be kind to us.

If it isn't, I tell myself that as long as Israel exists, a country the size of New Jersey--I will have a safe haven, a refuge, if necessary.

I'd like to deny it, but I know my destiny is linked to the survival of Israel. When an El El 747 touches down at Ben Gurion Airport, the tradition is for the cabin to be filled with the plaintive, mournful sound of the Israeli national anthem. Even, nyceve, a very assimilated American Jew, sheds a tear or two when I hear that music and I am reminded of our terrible history.

Nyceve, you can pray that the world will be kind to you, but your fears are well-founded. The world won't be kind. It is simply not Politically Correct to love Israel, as your sad, rambling, apologetic tone suggests. Jew bad. Palestinian good. That's what is politically correct. And even worse, America (and the vast majority of Americans) stand with Israel. That makes Israel even more hated, if that were possible.

Let me clarify something for you, naive one. America stands for Israel because Israel stands for freedom. Alone in the Middle East, Israel is a bastion of safety and democracy and freedom. Where else is there? There are nice places to visit but they are controlled by tribes and families and mullahs and dictators. That is NOT what Americans aspire to. Americans hold out hope that Arabs and Persians can embrace a system that benefits humanity like Israel has done. THAT's why America loves Israel. One of the reasons.

Another reason: Israel has made something of herself after being on the receiving end of non-stop persecution. The fiery culmination being Nazi extermination chambers. Americans sympathize because we are a country built on religious freedom. Our nations founder's were persecuted because of how or what we believed. READ SOME HISTORY! We are brothers in arms, as it were. Our founders gave up everything for freedom. They sacrificed fortune and family and life to create a country that all people, regardless of creed could call home--including Jews. That you still view yourself as a "guest" speaks volumes about 1) your ingratitude 2) your ignorance.

Finally, the Evangelicals who you so eagerly demonize believe, even if you are too "reformed" to admit, that God views Israel as His. Evangelicals have the sense to know not to get between God and His people. You may find this repugnant. What is it? That these people show more devotion to the Jews and to Israel's plight than do many American Jews, themselves? Does it bother you that they may be right, even if you're sick of hearing about it--sanctification, a special people, a Holy Nation. Are you worried because, all that just might be true and you're not doing one damn thing, besides crying at Israel's national anthem, to be a dedicated Jew? Are you sick of the "specialness" thing because that's why everyone hates you? Get over it. Christians have. Evangelicals who believe the Bible believe you are chosen by God. You have a special mission. And if you were a good Jew, you'd know that the story isn't finished yet. Get back to Temple and learn something.

The same Bible that calls Jews God's people condemns gays, adultery and basically every other achievement of the sexual revolution. That's the problem. Those dumb, literal believers make progressive's skin crawl. The same thing protecting Israel is the thing that stops gay marriage. It's the same thing that calls abortion an abomination.

It's also the thing that throws churches into action after Hurricanes. It's the thing that welcomes thousands of visitors into a community. It's the book that Bush believes. It's the book that a huge percentage of the U.S. believes.

And all that can make a progressive feel dirty. It is also more than a tad uncomfortable for a Jew. Ewww, the nerd wants to be my friend. I'm sooooooo embarassed!

What irks me, is that the notions put forth by the evangelical movement were what the founders considered the "self-evident" stuff. Not today. Pornography is protected. Abortion is observed with the religiousness of a feminist sacrament. Every vile thing from illegal drug use to terrorism is excused. I am quite sure the Founders didn't have all this in mind.

And this is why a mealy mouthed New York Jew must simper when declaring herself to stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel. And she simpers to a liberal, progressive crowd who would be the first to let Israel fall. Unbelievable.

The Next Question About Lebanon: When Did Bush Know It And When?

We haven't seen the headline yet, but with Israel just getting warmed up, and 25,000 Americans stuck in a country getting blasted to heck, the omniprescient, omnipotent and all-around tough-guy George W. Bush is bound to be blamed.

Oh, wait. He already is being blamed in the UK here and on NBC here and just about everywhere.

Group Think

World of Psychology Will Meek explains how good people (do great numbers of these animals exist?) do bad things--especially in groups. Morals go out the window in a group. When the leader goes bad, the group goes bad. He cites this article in the LA Times (must register) which says:

"The research is pretty clear: You put people in a group situation and they tend to do what the group decides," says Donelson Ross Forsyth, an expert in group dynamics and ethical leadership at the University of Richmond in Virginia.

History and psychological studies both bear this out. Germany wasn't chock-full of evil people during the Holocaust. Instead, mostly ordinary, law-abiding Germans followed their leaders in the torture and killing of millions of Jews.

In Rwanda in 1994, once-peaceful neighbors who had never acted with violence turned on each other in horrific acts of brutality.

Here's the thing, not everyone commits these acts of brutality. Some don't. Not that I don't care about group think, because I do find it very interesting, but what I find more interesting are the exceptions. I would like to know better and replicate the psychology of the Oskar Schindlers and Paul Rusesabaginas of the world--those people who have a vested (in his case life and livelihood) interest in doing bad, but don't.

Goodness in the face of evil. Now that's a study worthy of replicating.

Jeff Goldstein Explores Equality

“The yin and yang of intimate interpersonal relationships post, 25” (from the protein wisdom conceptual series)

yin: “Honey? The oil light is coming on in the Land Cruiser again.”

yang: “Uh huh. Well, the plug on the Toyota is underneath the skid plate, so you’re going to need the motorized ratchet set. And when you roll under the truck, make sure you have the emergency brake secured and you aren’t parked on an incline.”

yang: “Oh. And don’t wear anything fancy. Because you’re likely to get covered in axle grease.”

yin:

yang: “What?”

yang: “YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY! Now hop to it while I throw dinner in the microwave and catch the end of ‘Wheel of Fortune.’”

Ah, yes, gender equity. Here's my version.

yin: "Owwwwwwwwwwwww....."

yang: "What? It doesn't seem so bad. Oh, look! There's the head! This just keeps getting better. What do you think about havin ten of 'em. They're so cute."

yin:

yang: "What?"

yin: "When I get up you're dead. And then I have a list for ya. You're changing the oil for eternity, bud. And taking out the trash. And mowing the lawn. And whatever else I tell ya to do. Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...."

Ten years later.

yin: “Honey? The oil light is coming on in the Land Cruiser again.”

yang: "Skid plate, oil, messy, yada, yada, yada."

yin:

yang: "What?"

yin:

yang: "How long until the statute of limitations...."

yin:

yang: "Right."

Mark Steyn: If we don't let Iran go nuclear, they'll go nuclear. Negotiate that, Chuck Hagel.

Stating the obvious to everyone, but only the most obtuse, that is to say those progressives among us, Mark Steyn laments Larry King's "Friar's Club" political solutions. Even more fun, Steyn gives a recommendation for Middle East Envoy that falls into the "breath of fresh air" category: Heather Mills and her bum, yet "life-like", leg.

President Bush: "Syria Needs to Stop This Shit!"

To Tony Blair during a luncheon, unscripted, and *ahem* with the microphone "mistakenly" left on by some intrepid reporter. Gateway Pundit has more. Not that I believe the Prez is wrong or even that I care a hoot that everyone knows his unedited thoughts.

Heaven forbid though, the press picks up a conversation that goes like this, "Okay, so you're launching an attack on Damascus at 0400 tomorrow, right? Yeah, we'll be right there with you with air support to bomb those blood-thirsty miscreants back to hades. Sleep well, Prime Minister. Let's have a convo tomorrow after we level the place."

Saddam Loves His Moustache

Via Betsy's Page this gem from Captain's Quarters:

A speech handwritten by Saddam Hussein, apparently for the dedication of the Mother Of All Battles Mosque in May 2002, paints the picture of a man who wants to almost deify himself in the eyes of his people. For the occasion, he penned a paean to ... his moustache. No, I'm not kidding; here it is in its entirety (ellipsis in the original):

Arabs, including you, across their long history, have made their mustaches a symbol of their commitment and a mark of their willingness to bear the responsibility of their sex; as the uniqueness of the mustache was a duty of men alone, in all that glorifies family, people, and nation…

God has blessed us, and in us, he has blessed our mustaches, as well as any mustache jealous for his nation, his homeland, and his people, in the many and various duels that have become such that many of them seem a fantasy, rather than real actions against Iraq, which emerged proud and hale, with God’s will. The enemy has failed, as was God’s will also, to twist the courage of the people of Iraq, and the mustaches of Iraq’s good men,
including my mustache, the leader in hard times of strife, as in the times of building and virtue, and glory… from my mustache come these hairs.

Today, as I bequeath these hairs of my mustache to you, at the Umm-al-Ma`arik (TC: the Mother of All Battles) Mosque, I want you to remember the values that I have bequeathed to you. My history is part of your virtuous deeds, and your greatest of labors. I bequeath them to you to follow their example, and to retain the meanings that they hold, after putting your faith in the one almighty God, the able, the eternal, whenever a foreigner tries to force his way against your protection and values, or deviates from the path of honor, dignity, faith, and glory; the path of the people, and of the nation. Protect the hairs of this mustache with your protection of Iraq. Aid it with honor, and with the dignity of your nation and faith. God is Great… God is Great…God is Great.

This should prove that these documents are authentic. No one could make this up. This comes from document ISGP-2003-00014647, page 48 and 49.

Please note that I am placing all of the posts regarding these document translations into a new category, Saddam's Documents. I'll be reviewing more as the weekend progresses.

Posted by Captain Ed at July 14, 2006 06:53 PM

Hospital Chiefs Canoodling With Drug Companies

Drug companies consult with Hospital Chiefs about how to get drugs, man, into more American hands. Is that even possible? We're a doped up, strung-out nation as it is. Do we need more drugs? Evidently.

Please don't view these things as innocent marketing. They are not. If everyone can create more illness, more drugs get sold. It is a system that really, really works for everyone but the patient.

Picture of Hope

We had the opportunity to go to a Christening this weekend. The Catholic Deacon was discouraged about world events, but said days like this give him hope.

Me, too.

Technology & The New War

HiWired Blog talks about how blogging has changed this war by allowing parties on each side to air their viewpoint and argue back and forth in comments. I have linked to Lebanese, Jewish, Iraqi and all sorts of American bloggers myself. The world has indeed changed.

H/T Instapundit

Mexicans Love to March

And marching again they are--this time in their country. Sigh.

Dr. Helen's Attention Gave My Blog A Heart Attack

It occured to me that my Sitemeter chart looked like a visual Myocardial Infarction creatine spike and all.

My frustration during all the visits, thank you again Dr. Helen, is that my blog got attacked and most of my readers couldn't get to my site. For the four days of her charity, I couldn't write!

My goal, then, is to get these numbers back up there.

My husband's goal is to get me to stop blogging. He thinks it's worthless.

What do you think?

Liberals Are More Creative

Ann Althouse considers that notion. I'm not sure. The most banal art comes forth when restraint is a dirty word. (Can you say Vagina Monologues?) Creativity is finding a novel solution within constraints. If we confine ourselves to Hollywood creative types, hmmm....

I think it's backwards. Creative (entertainment) people are more liberal. But the reason for that is fairly simple--they tend to be highly unconventional--go against the grain of conventional thought...or any thought. They feel. Sensitive, feeling types, creative types, do not tend to inhabit the upper eschalons of intelligence, necessarily. It's not required for the job. Some claim intelligence all evidence to the contrary (just ask Sharon I'm-in-Mensa Stone), but one could dispute her leaden acting as creative. But I digress.

And, on a further note, the visual arts is not the only place to demonstrate creativity. Commerce, law, medicine, the space program for heavens sake all require creativity.

Bye Bye Miss American Spy

God Bless America. Where people like those at Right Place display a sense of humor:

I started singin':
Don't cry, Ms. American Spy
We'll get Libby for his fibby
And then Cheney will fry
And that smirking chimp will finally wave us goodbye
Singin', this'll be the day donkeys fly
This'll be the day donkeys fly

H/T Dr. Sanity

Brendan Loy Has A Finger on the Pulse

My vague sense of unease and impending doom about this Mideast thing won't abate. I'm stewing in my juices trying to frame the situation in a potentially positive way and coming up wanting. It ain't working, no matter how hard I try to fix it.

As any man will tell you, even transient bouts of impotence cause distrurbing amounts of anxiety. Watching Israel and Lebanon and Syria and Iran .... me innards tremble. Impotent. The last time I felt this way--panged and helpless and fearful of the implications was 9/11/2001. Perhaps the reason I feel this way is the Nameless War, that to some is not war, just opened another theater. And I guess, too, that's another part of it: some don't see what I see: War. And I wonder. How can they not see it?

Brendan Loy perfectly encapsulates my disquiet. He says:

And if things continue to escalate, it could get really bad: we all know Syria is deeply involved with Hezbollah and Lebanon, and now Iran is threatening that if Israel attacks Syria, Iran will attack Israel. And heaven knows America will defend Israel if that happens. Plus, this all has massive implications for Iraq. And who knows what implications a wider regional war would have for Afghanistan… and its ever-fragile neightbor, Pakistan… and recently-attacked India… etc. etc. And if America gets sufficiently distracted, Kim Jong Il might throw another temper tantrum, which opens up the possibility of whole ‘nother domino effect (South Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan…). All that’s missing from this volatile mix is an archduke named Ferdinand!

He says that maybe he's getting carried away. I'm not so sure he's exagerating. And that's why I'm afraid.

Lebanon's Plight

A bitter letter from Lebanon.

For those Lebanese who feel betrayed by an America so willing to back up Israel, please note here: the political complexities Lebanon faces are not lost on many Americans (even as insulated and ignorant as we are). The Lebanese are trying to make their way and build a democracy. The military and government are weak and fragile. No doubt, Syria and Hezbollah wish to exploit this weakness.

There are a lot of questions as to why Israel is attacking Lebanon first instead of going to the source: Syria. My wish would be that Syria gets blown to smithereens. Not touchy-feely nice, I know. Cut the heart out and strangle Hezbollah. But Israel may well be trying to deal with the immediate problem on their border and then go to the source. Time will tell.

No one is happy with Lebanon losing its infrastructure. No one is happy with Lebanon ending in destruction. Should Israel pretend that Hezbollah isn't the mafia that practically runs Lebanon? Someone is in charge. If it isn't the elected government, it's Hezbollah and Syria.

I hope that Syria gets demolished. I hope that Hezbollah in Lebanon gets destroyed. I hope the poor people in that war-torn country can overcome bitterness and rebuild--hopefully with the help of the world community.

I have hope. I pray for the good people of Lebanon. I pray for Israel. The outcome of this war will mean everything for the future of the Middle East and the World.

And the Marines stand with

Israel. A marine speaks at Atlas Shrugged. Read it.

Meanwhile the NYT Stands With.....

I'll let you guess. If you want to see pictorial and editorial proof go to Michelle Malkin.

Sandmonkey & Other Opinions

Suprise! (Warning colorful language, foul mood.)

And for balance, Daily Kos supports Iran's viewpoint. LGF has more.

And in case anyone is still delusional, we are in World War III, or if you consider the Cold War WWIII, we're in World War IV. We can quibble later. We are in a World War. Get used to it. Even Newt Gingrich says we're in WWIII and thinks G.W. should call a meetin' with Congress Monday. Nicedoggie has more.

Captain's Quarter's muses about who exactly is in charge in Syria.


Michael Totten is in Lebanon and he's worried.

And, and this is most important, if you are a regular reader of my blog: I stand with Israel. Michelle Malkin reprints Oriani Fallaci's essay. She then discusses the Vatican's "condemnation of Israel." I put this last, but you might find it the most important link of all. Here is an excerpt:

I find it shameful that in part through the fault of the left--or rather, primarily through the fault of the left (think of the left that inaugurates its congresses applauding the representative of the PLO, leader in Italy of the Palestinians who want the destruction of Israel)--Jews in Italian cities are once again afraid. And in French cities and Dutch cities and Danish cities and German cities, it is the same. I find it shameful that Jews tremble at the passage of the scoundrels dressed like suicide bombers just as they trembled during Krystallnacht, the night in which Hitler gave free rein to the Hunt of the Jews.

I find it shameful that in obedience to the stupid, vile, dishonest, and for them extremely advantageous fashion of Political Correctness the usual opportunists--or better the usual parasites--exploit the word Peace. That in the name of the word Peace, by now more debauched than the words Love and Humanity, they absolve one side alone of its hate and bestiality. That in the name of a pacifism (read conformism) delegated to the singing crickets and buffoons who used to lick Pol Pot's feet they incite people who are confused or ingenuous or intimidated. Trick them, corrupt them, carry them back a half century to the time of the yellow star on the coat. These charlatans who care about the Palestinians as much as I care about the charlatans. That is not at all...

For shame.

Medienkritik Analyzes Schizophrenic German Media

Now, the German media want the "warmongers" to take a "leadership role." The previously discussed "balanced" German media is highlighted at this blog. Go to it to see the "balanced" Der Spiegel covers about the U.S. Oh yes, they love us, the really, really do love us.

Map of War Theater Lebanon

Go here to see what's going on courtesy Pajama's Media. Excellent map.

Middle East Uproar

I haven't slept well all week. Could this be why?

I'm Here And I'm A Breeder: Teaching Tolerance For Those "Different" Than Us

When I was in Key West two years ago, an exchange that happened between the hotel clerk and a guest shocked me. He and his wife lamented, "all the families bringing their children (said sneeringly) and ruining everything. Thank Gawd this place doesn't allow kids."

After checking out this gracious, narcissitic baby boomer, the clerk said, "Yeah, tension has really been rising between breeders and everyone."

"Breeders?" I asked.

"You know, breed -ers. People who breed kids." She seemed exasperated at my ignorance.

"Isn't there room for everyone?" The question was rhetorical. After that I heard the "breeders" term used a couple times in conversation and have used it ever since. I've decided to take on the perjorative term. Kinda like the word queer, "breeder" is my description and I'm proud of it.

Intolerance for traditional family types by gay types boils in other tolerant locales these days. Seems that the name calling and assault and intimidation are the new tactics to win over Same Sex Marriage opponents in Provincetown. Yup. That'll work.

Here are some of the tactics:

On same-sex marriage, the clashes have occurred as the state Legislature grapples with whether the electorate should vote on a measure to limit marriage to heterosexuals. A group that supports gay marriage, knowthyneighbor, has created a website displaying the names of more than 100,000 signers of a petition that calls for the state Constitution to be amended to prohibit same-sex marriage.

Knowthyneighbor's tactics are controversial, with critics alleging that knowthyneighbor is making the names of same-sex marriage opponents public in an effort to expose or intimidate them. The group's founders say they are simply promoting civic discourse.

I do feel that someone signing a petition should be willing to defend their beliefs. And yet, the notion that knowthyneighbor wants to "promote civic discourse" is silly on the face of it. They know that such a divisive issue can cost people business (both ways) and more. Some other loving gestures:

One St. Peter's parishioner, Yvonne Cabral, was verbally accosted last Friday by Provincetown Magazine publisher Rick Hines after Hines learned that Cabral signed the petition, according to police.

Police Chief Ted Meyer plans to seek charges of disorderly conduct against Hines, who saw Cabral shopping and loudly called her a ``bigot," according to both Hines and Meyer. Other people who signed the petition -- and subsequently had their names posted on the same website -- said manure has been spread on their properties in recent months, Meyer added.

All parties involved agree that Cabral was shopping and Hines was buying a hotdog when Hines told Cabral that she was a bigot.

Yes, I'm sure that were the tables reversed, and Ms. Cabral confronted Mr. Hines publicly about his sinful behavior while he was going about his business shopping and continued to rant that he would go to hell for his immoral waywardness using words like "deviant" and "sick" and then, for good measure spreading manure on his lawn, he would not be championing her "free speech".

The notion that someone can be against Gay Marriage due to their religious belief or for other reasons automatically qualifies someone as "bigot". There is only one way to look at it--the p.c. way, the gay way. And because that perspective is the "right" way, any means necessary to intimidate, coerce, humiliate, and maybe even hurt, are justified, right? Tolerant.

These methods won't work, people. These methods will backfire.