Send in the Clowns
Nothing’s more helpful to an international crisis than a silly gaggle of self-important egomaniacs from Washington, D.C.
According to Fox News, three U.S. senators are heading to India in the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attack.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and two fellow senators are headed to India and Pakistan Sunday on a congressional delegation, he told FOX News.
Just what Graham & Co. clown parade hopes to accomplish is unclear.
With Democrats in Charge…
…expect more of this: “Shady Island ‘House’ Party.”
From the NY Post,
High-ranking members of Congress were flown to a lush Caribbean resort this month for a three-day conference planned and paid for by several of the country’s most powerful corporations – a violation of federal ethics rules, critics say.
Six members of the Congressional Black Caucus attended the 13th annual Caribbean Multi-National Business Conference in sun-drenched St. Maarten, including embattled Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel and New Jersey Rep. Donald Payne.
But according to House ethics rules, members of Congress and their staffs cannot accept multiday trips from a corporation that “employs or retains a registered lobbyist. Included in this limitation are companies, firms, non-profit organizations (including charities), and other private entities that retain or employ a lobbyist.”
Furthermore, according to House rules, members of Congress must seek prior written permission from the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to take free multiday trips. They must also file reports with the Clerk of the House of Representatives listing all financial sponsors within two weeks of each trip.
Ethics rules do not apply to Democrats. With corruptocrats in control of both houses of Congress and the White House, expect more of this sort of thing.
‘My Culture Is Better Than Yours’
Geert Wilders is the Dutch politician who created the 15-minute film “Fitna,” quoting the Koran and Islamic leaders calling for murder and mayhem against non-Muslims, as well as presenting images of terrorist attacks, beheadings and the rest.
James Taranto, writing at WSJ Online, profiles Wilders, who apologetically defends the Western culture against the apostle of multiculturalism.
“We believe that — ‘we’ means the political elite — that all cultures are equal,” he says. “I believe this is the biggest disease today facing Europe. . . . We should wake up and tell ourselves: You’re not a xenophobe, you’re not a racist, you’re not a crazy guy if you say, ‘My culture is better than yours.’ A culture based on Christianity, Judaism, humanism is better. Look at how we treat women, look at how we treat apostates, look at how we go with the separation of church and state. I can give you 500 examples why our culture is better.”
According to the column, Wilders doesn’t believe most Muslims in the U.S. and Europe are terrorists. But says a society that doesn’t self-consciously value its own culture, and at the same time allows almost unrestricted immigration of peoples who hate that culture, will eventually lose its identity and the very values and the freedoms that flow from those values.
Wilders’ blunt spoken comments about Islam and his video “Fitna” have sparked the usual cries of outrage from Muslims in the Netherlands, Europe and the Middle East. The critics don’t dispute what he says, but that’s not the point of the howls. The point is to silence Wilders and others like him who see the true nature of Islam’s war on the West.
“The principle is not me — it’s not about Geert Wilders,” he says. “If you look at the press and the rest of the political elite in the Netherlands, nobody cares. Nobody gives a damn. This is the worst thing, maybe. . . . A nondemocratic country cannot use the international or domestic legal system to silence you. . . . If this starts, we can get rid of all parliaments, and we should close down every newspaper, and we should shut up and all pray to Mecca five times a day.”
Right Moves
A World at War
Whether it’s Muslims attacking and killing innocent people in Mumbai, India, or Muslims surrounding and attacking a church full of Coptic Christians in Egypt, or a train bombing in Madrid, or a suicide attack just about anywhere, we are a world at war.
In India, the average non-Muslim knows who the enemy is. In just every other country dominated by Muslims, non-Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, all know who the enemy is. Here in the West most people recognize the enemy. In nearly all cases it’s our governments who refuse to wake up to the threat in our societies. And, that threat is the Islamic religion and those who practice it.
Over at Jawa, they had a link to this blogwhere the writer goes to great lengths to explain the motivations behind the brutal slaughter in India this past week, but never once denounces it.
That is a completely predictable response from other Muslims to terror, murder and other barbaric acts committed by their fellows. There are no innocent Muslims. By their silence they all become accomplices to the atrocities committed in the name of their false god Allah.
We are at war. They know we are at war and are waging a war. The single biggest failure of the Bush administration is it’s “kindler and gentler” was against these animals. The point of war is to impose your will on your enemy. The jihadists are certainly trying to do that to the West. But we have failed to respond and have signalled weakness.
Instead of nation building in the Middle East, we should be about nation destroying. Instead of building schools, hospitals, roads and bridges, refineries and water supplies, we should be destroying them. Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, every hot bed breeding ground of the Islamic cancer should be the focus of total war.
When they come to our cities, London, Brussels, Dearborn, Mumbai, Madrid, and attack us as they have in Mumbai, London and Madrid, an armed citizenry should fight back, and fight back with brutal savagery.
Here in the U.S. we should halt all immigration from Islamic countries. No more student visas, tourists visas, work visas. All current visas should be cancelled and those holding them sent packing.
We’re at war, it’s time to start acting like it.
Twin Cities Somalis Go Walk About, Go Boom
The mystery of the missing Somali men from the Twin Cities may be solved. Apparently, one of the men who have disappeared from the area, blew himself up in suicide bombing in Northern Somali.
5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has learned that federal law enforcement sources believe that a Twin Cities man blew himself up in a suicide bombing in Northern Somalia last month.
The FBI and Homeland Security are investigating whether Shirwa Ahmed had developed a terrorist recruiting network in the area.
5 EYEWITNESS NEWS learned that Ahmed came to the Twin Cities in 1996 and graduated from Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. He was a naturalized U.S. citizen.
More than a dozen young men of Somali descent, mostly in their 20s, from the Minneapolis area have recently disappeared, U.S. law enforcement officials tell 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS. All are thought to be associates of Ahmed. U.S. officials suspect most of the young men have departed for Somalia to fight in ongoing violence there or to train in terrorist camps. Family members of the young men are said to be distraught, trying to figure to out what happened to them, sources say.
At least they’re blowing themselves up somewhere else.
Mumbai Attacks (Update)
From the U.K. Telegraph:
One of the terrorists was quoted on Indian TV saying the purpose of the hostage-taking was to secure the release of all “mujahideen” held in Indian prisons.
The Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, said the attacks were “well planned and well-orchestrated… intended to create a sense of panic by choosing high profile targets and indiscriminately killing foreigners”.
Rather than release them, the Indian government ought to shoot all “mujahideen” held in prisons, wrap their dead bodies in bacon and send them back to Packiraqiranistan or whatever Arabic crap hole they came from.
Happy Thanksgiving
“With God as my witness, I thought turkey’s could fly.”
WKRP Thanksgiving promotion. The fun starts about 14 minutes into the show.
Mumbai Terrorist Attacks (Update)
If you’re following the events in Mumbai, here’s a good site with an update and photos.
What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been
This time last year I was hobbling around with a fresh batch of titanium screws and metal plates installed in my heal. Hurt like the dickens it did. Still does in fact.
About a two weeks later, though, I started what turned out to be one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. Then in April of this year, I was again out of a job. SIGH. A nice severance though helped lessen the sting.
In May daughter number two got married on the beach in North Carolina to a really great guy. What a joy and great time those two weeks at the beach were.
Back home in June, working any job I could find, painting, installing windows, fixing decks, anything to keep some cash coming in. We were keeping our heads above water, barely.
By the end of the June my guts started hurting real bad. A trip to the emergency room led to eight days of agony, no food or water, while docs tried to figure out why my belly ached so badly. Heavy duty narcotics barely take the edge off. Perforated colon they said, need to operate, cut out a piece of your colon and small intestines.
Pain and more pain, two hours of uncontrolled bleeding. Nurses look scared. I am scared, can’t breathe, vomiting blood. When will this end? Will this end? Doc gets bleeding under control, orders a blood transfusion, I’m too weak to do anything but sleep for two days solid.
Finally after 20 days I’m sent home with a bag attached to my belly and life with a temporary ileostomy. No cancer the docs say. Hurray for that.
Eight weeks of recuperation, being careful what I eat, worrying about messy bag failures, cleaning up messy bag failures, too weak to do much of anything but lay around the house.
September arrives, strength and endurance returning, putting some weight back on after losing more than 30 pounds in the hospital. Second surgery puts my guts back together and then it’s on the road to full recovery.
Start working at Home Depot at the end of October and receive notice of foreclosure from the bank. Truck’s repossessed in the middle of the night, surreal. We’re buying groceries on food stamps. First paycheck a whopping 400 bucks.
November comes and I meet with a lawyer to file for bankruptcy in December, close to $400K in debt with no hope of paying it back. My bad. My bad decisions, bad money management, bad career choices.
Along the way, I’ve lost so many of my favorite things. My Jeep is dead. My truck repossessed. My hot tub doesn’t work. My career is no more. My body is weak, though healing.
So what’s there to be thankful for today?
My wife. My daughters. My sons. My son-in-law. My grandchildren. My family. My Friends. My Savior.
Yes, my Savior.
Though He may take everything away, I know I’ll never lose Him nor He me.
Even during the worst in July, during the night, late at night, in the dark when sleep wouldn’t come, when the pain made everything crystal clear, when He seemed so very far away, I knew He would never abandon me, not completely, not forever, not ever. And He hasn’t and He won’t.
If I lose all, I have an eternity in the hands of a kind and merciful Savior. For that I am thankful.
Islamic Family Values
Spreading the love Islamic family style, “Almost half of Egyptian wives beaten: study.”
Almost half of married Egyptian women have been physically abused by their husbands, a study by the government statistics centre said on Wednesday.
The study by CAPMAS said that 47 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 reported being victims of domestic violence and seven percent said a spouse raped them, state news agency MENA reported.Domestic violence is punishable under Egyptian law, but police are reluctant to intervene in something that is considered a private matter, said an Egyptian women’s rights activist.
“If a woman complains, it would be considered a crime. But if she doesn’t, the husband won’t be punished,” Nahed Abu el-Qumsan, head of the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights, told AFP.
ROP Update (India Edition)
Apparently the followers of Islam are busy practicing their peaceful religion in Mumbai.
Times of India reports 80 dead, more than 900 injured in multiple attacks throughout the city.
A blog post from a witness.
That’s when we realised that this was much more than a random police encounter, or a couple of gunshots. We heard that terrorists with AK-47s had opened fire outside Leopold’s, the pub down the road. We heard there was firing elsewhere in the city as well, including in the Taj. We watched transfixed, and as the apparent scale of the incidents grew, we realised we couldn’t go home. We asked if they had a room vacant; they did, so we settled in, switched on the TV, and watched in horror.
A Pirate’s Reward
Two hundred years ago the reward for a life of piracy was the hangman’s noose. Blackbeard who made his home down in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Ocracoke Island in particular, was captured by the British navy, had his head removed and placed on a pike on the north shore of the Hampton River in Virginia.
Writing in WSJ Online, Bret Stephens asks, “Why Don’t We Hang Pirates Anymore?”
By the 18th century, pirates knew exactly where they stood in relation to the law. A legal dictionary of the day spelled it out: “A piracy attempted on the Ocean, if the Pirates are overcome, the Takers may immediately inflict a Punishment by hanging them up at the Main-yard End; though this is understood where no legal judgment may be obtained.”
Severe as the penalty may now seem (albeit necessary, since captured pirates were too dangerous to keep aboard on lengthy sea voyages), it succeeded in mostly eliminating piracy by the late 19th century — a civilizational achievement no less great than the elimination of smallpox a century later.
Today, by contrast, a Navy captain who takes captured pirates aboard his state-of-the-art warship will have a brig in which to keep them securely detained, and instantaneous communications through which he can obtain higher guidance and observe the rule of law.
Yet what ought to be a triumph for both justice and security has turned out closer to the opposite. Instead of greater security, we get the deteriorating situation described above. And in pursuit of a better form of justice — chiefly defined nowadays as keeping a clear conscience — we get (at best) a Kenyan jail. “We’re humane warriors,” says one U.S. Navy officer. “When the pirates put down their RPGs and raise their hands, we take them alive. And that’s a lot tougher than taking bodies.”
Good discussion of the issue in the comments at Volokh Conspiracy. I tend to agree with this guy:
“One bleeding-heart type asked me in a recent interview if I did not agree that ‘violence begets violence.’ I told him that it is my earnest endeavor to see that it does. I would like very much to ensure – and in some cases I have – that any man who offers violence to his fellow citizen begets a whole lot more in return than he can enjoy.” -Jeff Cooper
Black Friday
No, not the new Obama holiday, the day after Thanksgiving. For people who actually have some money…
Friends in High Places
Congressional Democrats, the Carter and Clinton administrations have their dirty paw prints all over the subprime mortgage-housing-credit market-global markets bust.
Matthew Vadum, writing in the American Spectator, connects the dots on the Citigroup bailout.
Again, not surprisingly, the latest recipient of government largess is a big donor to political candidates and parties. It’s the 15th largest corporate giver, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, donating $25.1 million since 1989 in roughly even portions to the two parties. When Citigroup begged for taxpayer help, the Bush administration and congressional leaders took the call. Don’t expect a policy change from President-elect Obama’s incoming Secretary of Bailouts, Tim Geithner, and Larry Summers, soon to be head of the National Corporate Welfare Council.
And there’s this from CNSNews:
(CNSNews.com) – Four major banks, including one that collapsed, two that received federal bailout money and one that filed for bankruptcy this past September, paid former President Clinton $2.1 million for 13 speeches he delivered on their behalf between 2004-2007, according to Senate financial disclosure statements filed by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.).
Citigroup paid Bill Clinton $700,000; Goldman Sachs paid $950,000; Lehman Brothers paid $300,000 and Merrill Lynch paid $175,000 to the former president for speeches during that time period. Sen. Clinton’s 2008 financial disclosure reports are not yet available.
Back to Vadum:
AND IF EVER THERE was a company that didn’t deserve a bailout, it’s Citigroup, a Big Government lovers’ bank that funds just about every trendy left-wing cause in America.
Long before it started drowning in red ink, the poster child for so-called corporate social responsibility was a longtime donor to left-wing pressure groups such as Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and Henry Paulson’s Nature Conservancy. In tax year 2003, Citigroup’s foundation gave 20 times more money to groups on the left than to groups on the right, according to Capital Research Center’s 2006 study of Fortune 100 foundation giving. (Foundation Watch, August 2006.)
Newer Posts »Citigroup’s foundation has given a staggering $1.4 million to the alarmist World Resources Institute, as well as $509,000 to ACORN in recent years. The ACORN funding included a $500,000 grant to ACORN’s American Institute for Social Justice, which offers Saul Alinsky-style training in community organizing. Other donations to liberal groups include the Aspen Institute ($762,500), Rainbow/PUSH ($750,000), Nature Conservancy ($380,000), Rainforest Alliance ($200,000), and the Council on Foreign Relations ($50,000).