Guest Workers In Europe

Thomas Sowell shares what will happen if the Congress has its way with the guest worker program. We need only look at Europe to find out.

Immigrants need to be legal. They need to be invested in their country. Guest workers are invested in their country and it isn't the country in which they reside.

Nifong Testimony

For anyone who doesn't find closure until there is justice, Nifong experiencing some discomfort in the face of his crime, might help. KC Johnson reports the facts. Check regularly for updates. Meanwhile.....

The New York Time's Duff Wilson plays Mike Nifong's best friend again. To what end? Evidently, if he admits that Nifong is a lying law-breaker, he'll be admitting that he was a complete rube during his reporting. Bad news, Mr. Wilson, mission already accomplished. The best thing to do now is to attempt, even feebly, to report the facts.

Obamagirl: Hot for Her Man

Sometimes true love looks like a parody. Sometimes, it's beyond parody.


H/T Ann Althouse

Civil War in Gaza--UPDATE

The Palestinians are eating their own:

"We have always asked for international forces to come to the West Bank and Gaza," Abbas confidant Saeb Erekat told Israel's Army Radio. But, he added, "Honestly, on the personal level, I believe that if we don't help ourselves as Palestinians, nobody can."

The people spoke and this is what they got.
".... the Arab people have spoken, haven't they? Clearly and unequivocally their voice is heard."

Democracy can be a bitch. Look at our ruling elites.


UPDATE: Now, here's a novel solution to the problem.

Curriculum Corruption--UPDATE

Homeschooling is sounding better and better. Who knew there was such a thing as multicultural math?

UPDATE: The Anchoress has a great wrap-up post, and says this about homeschooling:

Dept of I Would Seriously Consider This: if my kids were still school age, because it seems more seriously scholastic, oddly enough. I wouldn’t suggest doing away with public schools because - believe it or not - not all parents may be depended upon to see to their kids edumacation, but the indoctrination techniques of some teachers and dubious field trips might definitely sway me toward home schooling.

She links to this fantastic article about homeschooling. It has great stats on homeschooled kids and is worth reading from beginning to end.

This increased growth, interestingly enough, has not come at the expense of student performance -- quite the opposite. Comparisons in achievement tests of homeschooled students to national averages for all students show that homeschooled children are well above the national average in every subject and at every grade level in the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and in Tests of Achievement and Proficiency. Anecdotal evidence (in addition to that reported above) provides further support. In the 2002 National Geographic Bee, four of the 10 finalists were homeschooled, including the winner. In the 2003 National Spelling Bee, homeschooled children took two of the top seven spots. Remember, only 3 percent of America's schoolchildren are homeschooled.

I think I've made my decision.

Antibiotic Overuse Leads To Asthma

Babies given antibiotics more likely to end up with asthma:

Among the findings controlled for asthma risk factors, the researchers reported:

• Asthma was significantly more likely at age 7 in children who had received antibiotics in the first year of life for non-respiratory tract infections than in those who had not received antibiotics at all (OR 1.86, 95% CI 1.02 to 3.37).
• The likelihood of developing asthma increased in a dose-dependent manner and was significant for every number of antibiotic courses (OR 1.21 for one or two, 1.30 for three or four, and 1.46 for more than four).
• The asthma risk for children who received more than four courses of antibiotics in the first year was even greater for those without a dog in the home at birth (OR 2.02, 95% CI 1.20 to 3.38), no maternal history of asthma (OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.20 to 2.04), or who lived in a rural area (OR 1.88, 95% CI 1.23 to 2.88).
• Broad-spectrum antibiotics were significantly associated with the development of asthma by age 7 (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.16 to 1.93).
• Narrow-spectrum antibiotics tended to increase asthma risk as well, but the association was not significant (OR 1.35, 95% CI 0.29 to 6.23).

The link between nonrespiratory infections and asthma may have been at least partially because of misdiagnosed atopic dermatitis, which is a major risk factor for the development of asthma, the researchers noted.

The vast majority of ear infections can be prevented a couple ways:

1. Nurse your child.
2. Remember that ear infections are overwhelmingly viral and antibiotics do more harm than good.
3. Keep the child away from groups of snotty children (public spaces like play areas in restaurants, malls, church, YMCAs, etc.) until they are at least two.
4. Use gentle alternatives to help your child.
   
5. Let the virus run its course. The child is building his immune system. Antibiotics ultimately depress the immune function and should be used in only extraordinary cases.
   

Autism & Vaccinations: A Test Case

Many parents are convinced that the MMR vaccine caused their child's autism. This case has huge implications for drug companies, government policy, and care for the afflicted.

If there is a sacred cow in medicine, it's vaccinations. While the science has thus far failed to find a link between the vaccine and autism, parents are equally convinced by their own experience. For years, doctors and scientists believed parents were exaggerating their child's normal development up until 15 to 24 months, or flat-out misreporting it. Recent research vindicates parents, however. (More here.)

Clearly, there is some environmental contributor to autism. I do not ascribe to the theory that children are being diagnosed in greater numbers due to changes in diagnostic criteria. Do you remember a typically autistic child in school when you were a kid? I don't either. Something has changed. I don't know if this legal case will help families find the truth, or at least financial help, but the case is important.

Immigration: Mutually Assured Political Destruction

I have marvelled at Senate Majority Leader Reid's statement implying that the Immigration Bill would be law now, save for some recalcitrant Republicans. Reid said:

"It was President Bush and Republicans in Congress who lacked the backbone to stand up to the extreme right wing of their party, filibustered reform twice in two days, and put partisan politics ahead of border security and immigration reform," Reid said.

What that tells me is this: Democrats are even less interested in representing their constituency than Republicans.

Aversion to the immigration bill comes from people of all backgrounds and politcal stripes. Somehow, the Republicans are being tarred for not getting with the program. Won't this beat up the Republicans strategy backfire, though, when half of Americans agree that the bill is a ridiculous mish-mash and another quarter are cconfused? 72% of likely voters felt that border enforcement is very important and 16% more thought it is somewhat important. That's 88% of the voting public saying that enforcement is important. Hello? Political elites?

If the President and Congress could demonstrate seriousness, in the form of action, about border enforcement the amnesty issue would melt away. In fact, I would sing the praises of a sweeping amnesty and use the word Amnesty with pride, if border security became a fact instead of the current fiction.

Evidently, the point of this immigration fiasco was to put it to the opposition. In the same Fox article referenced above, commercials are already castigating Ried and the Democrat-controlled congress in Spanish for the failed bill. I hope everyone knows what they're doing. This immigration bomb hurling could bring on mutually assured political destruction. It may have already done so.

Words You Should Know

Do you know these words? I was good--a few words would have needed a context--until the very last word. What the hell is a ziggurat? And why must a high school graduate know this word? Even Blogger highlighted it as misspelled. I assure you. It is not misspelled. My husband said that the list-maker just needed a word that began with "z".

Also, why is both unctuous and obsequious on the list? The same goes for bowdlerize and expurgate. Redundant, no? What's with the editorial angst?

And I find these words rather interesting; I question the timing: enfranchise, impeach, incontrovertible, nonsectarian, oligarchy, omnipotent, reparation, subjugate, suffragist, supercilious, totalitarian, vacuous, vortex, wrought, oh, and nihilism. What is this? The politically correct word list? Why not add "identity politics" and "progressive" and be done with it? Oh, and tin foil hat.

H/T Gina Cobb

Pool Update

A few people asked for a pool update. A picture tells a thousand words--well, a few words in this case. We have landscaping to do. And, we needed to adjust those fountains, but the kids had fun while it lasted.

Non-Belief is the New Religion

A world where secularists control the media, science and increasingly religion; a world where non-belief is the belief; a world where nihilistic suicide is chosen over a constrained, but vital life, is a disturbed world indeed.

MaxedOutMama writes:

But we're not following the light of modern medical knowledge, and we're seeing the result en masse. We're becoming neither a scientific nor an Judeo-Christian culture; we are reverting to paganism, complete with the killing of sick children and diseased adults. So it's back to instincts, temple prostitution and human sacrifice for the non-religious or the non-scientific among us. Unfortunately, many of the scientific among us are climbing on the human sacrifice bandwagen as I write this.

Dick McDonald writes The Media is the Message:

The omission of truth is the most serious of all crimes committed by the Fourth Estate.

When I wrote about this before, a commenter complained, "so the problem isn't what's written, it's what's not written....you're just looking for a reason to be upset". No, I worked in an editorial department where the stakes were hardly as high as national security or world hunger or soul crushing poverty or genocide or name the problem and to me, the most noteworthy element in any publications is what is excluded. Someone is deciding what is seen and what isn't. Something is being kept off the front page when the front page is Paris Hilton.

Here are some somethings:

President Bush receives a "hero's welcome" in Albania. Imagine. Gateway Pundit has the best pictures and comments. Evidently the media hasn't made it's mark over there--perhaps they believe all countries already hate Bush the way they do. For all my complaining about the Commander-in-Chief (see illegal immigration, refusal to engage the media and break-neck spending), I do believe that history will vindicate his unwavering stance in the face of Islamofascism.

And here's how The New York Time's emphasis and minimization affect what you know about so-called "child terrorists". There's no attempt to even pretend at balance.

And here's Ace's perspective:

New York Time editor admits he tanked the JFK bomb-plot story because he "questioned the timing" of it.

As Allah asks -- and as we always ask of these morons -- what precisely was Bush attempting to distract away from? From... nothing?

Can anyone explain what scary-important political event needed some "distracting" from? Oh yeah-- the Democratic political debate. As these are happening pretty much every other week, can we assume the NYT has decided that there can be no prominent reportage on terror busts until after Hillary! or Obamessiah has been safely sworn into office as President?

Yes, that's precisely when terrorism will become real to the media. And suddenly, like the economy under Clinton (even the last two depressed years), the news will be all miracules and courage and success. The message will be, "We never should have gone, good thing we have a Democrat to make lemonade out of the Bush lemon."

And then there's selective religious bigotry of the media.

It goes on and on. Betsy's Page has a veritable list of ways the news you see is not the real news at all.

Look alive people! The internet is your friend. Truth can be found, you just have to seek it.

Why Can't Hollywood Allow People to Change or Be Noble?

Can people change?

That's the question/premise of The Sopranos. I haven't watched the series. The reputation for greatness came to me late so I decided to watch the whole thing at the end. I did the same thing with Sex and the City, which, taken all in one dose wasn't witty and novel, but depressing and mundane. Like Paris Hilton on a never-ending sex and booze bender, the slutty girls are just pathetic when viewing their whoreanusness all together. But I did take in Firefly that way and was rewarded with a movie-like experience--the episodes taken together made for cinematic heaven on the bedroom flatscreen. I have high hopes for Battlestar Gallactica, too. The first season sure was fantastic, if a little nerve wracking. Some series you need a week in between to recover. I fear The Sopranos will be that way, but there was no way I would miss Seasons 1 & 2 and jump in to the story-line missing information. Even still, I'll watch the last show. I know. I know. It's like reading the last paragraph of a book. I do that sometimes, too.

The question the series will answer in it's own mafia way: Can people change? I'm guessing that Tony won't. I'm guessing that none of them will. It would be un-Hollywood these days for anyone to find redemption. In Hollywood, everyone goes to their graves doing the badness they've always done or doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.

A glaring example of anti-redemption bias happened in one of the best films of the decade. In The Lord of the Rings, the character Faramir was written edgily and it was a huge mistake. Tolkien wrote him as wise and wounded, the un-loved son of an ultimately crazy man, who stood by principles even though violating them held the promise of his father's love. Unfortunately, in the writing team's desire to promote conflict, they dispensed with Faramir's fidelity. They also complicated the relationship between Frodo and Sam, something Tolkien himself considered and (rightly) discarded.

There are people who are true to their friends. There are people who change their heart. There are people who choose the path of light nearly every time they're given a choice. There are people like that.

It's a philosophy on life, isn't it? To believe that all people are lost, doomed to failure and cowardice. But some people are heroic and noble. Some people do do the right thing for the right reasons.

I'm not sure if Tony Soprano is worthy of hope or if he'll die as he lived--a depraved man. As for his co-dependent wife, can she find the moral choice at last? Further, will she find it, embrace and be willing to live with her wretchedness for the rest of her days?

That's just it. Many people don't want to face their humanity day in and day out. A glimpse of self is sufficiently terrifying to go back on living as they've always lived.

But some people do choose redemption. Redemption is not the clean, easy way, to be sure, since it requires remembering accurately, but redemption sure does lighten the load. Here's to hope and redemption, even if Tony Soprano, or Hollywood, never finds it.

Scotland Loses A Classroom of Children A Day

Cardinal Keith O'Brien in Scotland:

The leader of the Church in Scotland detailed how the legalization of abortion has marred the country. “In those 40 years the loss of life has been staggering. Around 7 million lives have been ended as a consequence of that one piece of legislation…the scale of the killing is beyond our grasp. In Scotland we kill the equivalent of a classroom full of school children every day.”

The prelate also lamented the way that the 1967 law was presented. “We were told that backstreet abortions were killing women and had to be decriminalised. We were told abortion would only be used in extreme cases. We were told medical scrutiny would be rigorous. We were told a pack of lies and misinformation masquerading as compassion and truth.”

The Cardinal said that he is concerned not only with the lives that have been lost, but also with the lives being led by the members of his flock.

One day, people will look back at our medical practices with horror. They will see the decimation Western society wrought on itself and be ashamed. We have hardened our hearts against the weakest among us. We have hardened our hearts against all children--fulfilling material desires but leaving the spirit empty. We leave children fatherless and pretend there is no consequence.

There are consequences.

H/T Brussels Journal

Russia's "Street Theater"

Austin Bay:

The big point: Russia is offering options and talking cooperation. The second big point: The Russian huff has been street theater since the mid-1990s. “Useful idiots” bought the schtick– but they always do. They made for sensational anti-American headlines.

Bay notes that Russia has a crumbling infrastructure and needs allies against strengthened border states. (What of the joint military ops with the Chinese?)

"Allies" seems a strange word to use in a sentence with anything Russian. They are like the autistic kid on the world block. (The big one, not the savant one.)


H/T Instapundit

Remember Paris..... Hilton: Updated & Updated Again

A couple thoughts:

1. Paris is probably going through a serious de-tox right now.
2. Paris has probably heard "no" twice in her life and the judge's "no" is one of them.
3. Paris is not being treated like everyone else. (Update: I retract this comment. MaxedOutMama has convinced me that the book, and a big heavy one at that, needed to be sent Ms. Hilton's way. She deserves it!)
   

I know a guy who got two DWIs in quick succession and he didn't get treatment like this. The judge is grandstanding. This is a case not unlike Martha Stewart and Leonna Helmsley. Rich, arrogant, white women pay in the American justice system. To this, Mama says:

Come on now. She is a danger to herself and others. The plea arrangement was a 3 year probation; that plea was to keep her out of jail. People would be excoriating this judge if she were not held in some way to that plea bargain and she or someone else were later killed or injured.

But inmates are near riot because they feel she's "getting away with murder" by pretending to be sick. According to The Sun, “Many of the girls have been locked down in their cells all day because they are so furious. The jail is full of screams about Paris."

This is not to say I have any warm fuzzies for Paris. I just think that justice should be status blind. The forty-five days seems excessive. And, she seems to be paying for her inability to even pretend at humility. Humilitation, though, seems to be in her repetoire and to day was about humiliation.

Paris Hilton's treatment is:
	Fair
	Unfair
pollcode.com free polls

Update: Ace has decided to unsuppress his glee.