Speech Sendup--as GWB Might Say It

We are told that GWB's chief speechwriter will step down. Planet Moron supplied us with a copy of his letter of resignation:

Dear Mr. President,

First, I want to express my gratuity for the trust you placed in me and for the many opportunistics that I had to travel the great nations of the world including China, Russia and Africa. It was an honorary to stand by your side as you fought for every American’s right to put food on his family.

Not many individuals get the chance to work for the nation’s chief decider so I will always cherish not only the good times, but the other times before, for it is those times that test how we feel about the times that are.

I have the utmost respectfulness for you, Mr. President, and know you to be a man of firm convicts who would never think to disassemble. But the time has come for me to move on, perhaps to write on one of the Internets (although deciding which one will be difficult), or prepare a children’s textbook on structure sentence proper.

I have certainty that future generalizations will look back on these years and find historicality and will surely come to realize that yours was an administration that ensured that America would always remain a nation where wings take dream.

Sincerity,

Mike

C'mon--you KNOW it's funny.

Additional comments from Planet Moron:

President Bush was said to be “fully of sorority” to see Gerson go as he was one of the few people who truly understood him.

Democrats responded to Gerson’s departure by noting that he was part of an overall “culure of correlative conjunctions.” Also, something about WMDs.

Good News/Bad News

Here's the story:

"Barbra Streisand's emergence from 'retirement' has set off a buzz among longtime Streisand fans, who say they paid exorbitant amounts of money for her last 'retirement' tour and may file a class-action suit against the legend for tricking them into thinking they were seeing her for the final time."

Ahhh--the old "trickery and deceit" game.

Is this lawsuit a Bad Thing because they are suing Barbra? Or a Good Thing because she deserves to be sued?

Or should the grounds for the suit be something like Impersonating a Thinking Human Being?

HT: Overlawyered

Ann Coulter Did NOT Say This

For those of you who are crawfishing away from Ann Coulter, the following:


You have to admire the brazen hypocrisy being exhibited by the liberal media when it comes to the treatment that Ann Coulter has been receiving from them.

She has been so vilified that at least one liberal columnist has reportedly suggested she'd be better off dead. He actually asked her, "Would it kill you to do us all a favor and kill yourself?" But that columnist, Simon Dumenco of Ad Age, gets away unscathed – as do the rest of those who have directed vile, outrageous and shameful remarks in the direction of Coulter and others on the right.

(The answer to Dumenco's question is "Yes.") In know my syntax has a 'variable quality' aspect--but this guy has to be a heavyweight in the Syntax Murderer's contest...

Murder and the Left's Case of Projection

When you read this morning's blogs, specifically Jessica's and Clayton's, and analyze what these specific entries point out, and then combine that with the obsessive manias over Gitmo, Haditha, "ecology," "The Culture of Corruption," "gun control" and "...Save Just One Child" (in all its forms), it's more and more obvious that the disorder underpinning all this crap is Projection. It's not only the most likely synthesis--it is the ONLY one which makes sense.

Psychological projection (or projection bias) is a defence mechanism in which one attributes ("projects") to others, one’s own unacceptable or unwanted thoughts or/and emotions.

Think about it. In the last 40 years, the Left's major victories have been victories against life--Roe v. Wade, "assisted suicide," and the murder of Terri Schiavo. There have been other similar "victories" in Western Europe. Related, directly or indirectly, are such things as the Left's whitewash/defense of the Empire of Evil, (beginning with the NYTimes' unforgivable lying about the Stalin regime), and Margaret Sanger's open adoration of Hitler's 'eugenics' program.

Supporting 'victories' have been won against the institution of the family, which by no co-incidence is the pre-eminent vehicle for generation and protection of life.

The successful assault on natural law's first right (the right to life,) has evidently produced a backlash guilt complex. While using positive-law machinations and perversions to achieve victories over life, the Left's inborn still, small voice has not been vanquished.

Instead, that voice has compelled them to "project" their guilt on the majority of the population. They invent phantasms: US trained military men who wantonly kill civilians or torture prisoners, parents who abuse their children by malnutrition, and ordinary people who, if allowed to be armed, assault and kill others over fender-benders.

The Left assesses the license they have arrogated to themselves--the license to "murders of convenience," and project that licentiousness to the majority of the population. All the while, they claim the moral high ground of "compassion," and clutter the landscape of law with inanities--sin-taxes, denuded playgrounds, car seats, and banning Pepsi and tobacco.

Some "compassion."

Related post here.

"Movimento"--The Political Revolution

So you think the post below is a bit...over the top?

Thanks to Jim Pinkerton, who provides quotations

On Tuesday, I attended a panel discussion entitled "The New Immigrants Movement," part of a "Take Back America" conference convened in Washington, D.C., by the left-wing Campaign for America's Future.

Consider the words of Roberto Lovato, identified as a writer for New American Media, describing itself as "the country's first and largest national collaboration of ethnic news organizations." Speaking first, Lovato declared that he had problems with the words "civil rights."

...today "a lot of the members of the movement [movimento] were [are] political revolutionaries in countries such as Nicaragua and El Salvador." And that's why, he concluded, "this is not just a civil rights movement - this is the northernmost expression of a continental rights movement."

Indeed, the "de-Marxification" was deficient...

Disruption: The Attack of the Remnant Left

Through Little Green Footballs, we get interesting observations from Gates of Vienna:

[Front Page Magazine]: ...political correctness engenders evil because of “the violence that it does to people’s souls by forcing them to say or imply what they do not believe, but must not question.” Can you talk about this a bit?

Theodore Dalrymple: Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.

That's a perspective which is very interesting, and puts into perspective the concept of arguendo ad misericordiam referenced by Tom McMahon. If you're not allowed to object to untruth (or incomplete truth,) you become a 'co-operator,' which is to say "co-opted."

The author bemoans the lack of a thorough "de-Marxification" of the West post the fall of the Soviet Union, and then:

We are now paying the price for this. Not only has Marxism survived, it is thriving and has in some ways grown stronger. Leftist ideas about Multiculturalism and de-facto open borders have achieved a virtual hegemony in public discourse, their critics vilified and demonized. By hiding their intentions under labels such as “anti-racism” and “tolerance,” Leftists have achieved a degree of censorship of public discourse they could never have dreamt of had they openly stated that their intention was to radically transform Western civilization and destroy its foundations.

This is the concept Limbaugh discussed yesterday: the "pre-emptive censorship" operative in the borders (or Homosex-marriage) discussions--which applies to e.g., Ann Coulter, albeit Ann tends to feed the beast with red meat...

Eric Hoffer has noted that “It is obvious that a proselytizing mass movement must break down all existing group ties if it is to win a considerable following. The ideal potential convert is the individual who stands alone, who has no collective body he can blend with and lose himself in and so mask the pettiness, meaninglessness and shabbiness of his individual existence. Where a mass movement finds the corporate pattern of family, tribe, country, etcetera, in a state of disruption and decay, it moves in and gathers the harvest. Where it finds the corporate pattern in good repair, it must attack and disrupt.” This corresponds exactly to the behavior of much of the Western Left in our age.

Michael Savage briefly discussed "peace" the other night, and was joined by a caller who cited Thomas Aquinas to the effect that "Peace is the tranquility of order." Thus, those who would make war must first attack Order.

It's not too surprising, by the way, that the Roman Catholic Church, which remains quite cohesive worldwide, is most often the object of disruptive tactics...

Much of the political Left is simply engaged in outing their opponents as evil, instead of rationally arguing against their ideas. Attaching labels such as “racist” or even “Fascist” to anyone criticizing massive immigration or Multiculturalism has become so common that Norwegian anti-Islamists have coined a new word for it: “Hitling,” which could be roughly translated to English as “to make like Hitler.” The logic behind “hitling” is a bit like this: “You have a beard. Adolf Hitler had facial hair, too, so you must be like Hitler. Adolf Hitler liked dogs. You have pets, too, you must be like Hitler. Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian. You like carrots, you are just like Hitler.”

...that passage must sound familiar to commentators like Sykes...

There's a lot more at the "Vienna" link...

More Secret Than the NSA: the SPP

Ol' George, fresh from a good week of Iraqi news, now has some pesky folks asking about the "SPP" Office working in the White House.

...the White House has established working groups, under the North American Free Trade Agreement office in the Department of Commerce, to implement the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP, signed by President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, March 23, 2005.

The groups, however, have no authorization from Congress and have not disclosed the results of their work

Here's the most lame-brained non-response I've seen in a while:

Geri Word, who heads the SPP office, told WND the work had not been disclosed because, "We did not want to get the contact people of the working groups distracted by calls from the public."

Sure as Hell don't want that bunch of yahoo knuckledragger PUBLIC actually calling CIVIL SERVANTS to ask WTF they're doing!!!!

Actually, Human Events mentions one little project that we know of: the upgrade of I-35 and a parallel rail-line to expedite north-south traffic through the US from Mexico to Canada, complete with a Kansas City Mexican customs-house:

As incredible as this plan may seem to some readers, the first Trans-Texas Corridor segment of the NAFTA Super Highway is ready to begin construction next year. Various U.S. government agencies, dozens of state agencies, and scores of private NGOs (non-governmental organizations) have been working behind the scenes to create the NAFTA Super Highway, despite the lack of comment on the plan by President Bush. The American public is largely asleep to this key piece of the coming “North American Union” that government planners in the new trilateral region of United States, Canada and Mexico are about to drive into reality.

And you thought that the White House didn't have any more secrets...

Gingrich, Sliced and Diced

There's been some noise out there about Newt Gingrich as a Presidential contender. Granted, most of the noise has been made by Newt and perhaps one or two others--but Newtie managed to find a few friends in Minnesota last week.

Frankly, I've never liked the guy; he's double-crossed Conservatives enough so that his name could be...oh...Frist. And I'm not alone:

Gingrich is the Republicans' Bill Clinton. Being a Republican, Gingrich is not as vacuous as the Arkansas huckster, nor as amusing. In fact, he can be boring.

...He prides himself on being an intellectual, by which he means being a policy wonk. This is another of his fantasies; he confuses wonkiness with learnedness and wisdom. This is a fantasy he shares with Clinton.

I once heard an English gentleman, fresh from bathing in Clinton's radiance, confide to the great British historian Paul Johnson that Clinton is "so intelligent." "Not intelligent," Johnson responded, "cunning." The word encapsulates Gingrich's thought process perfectly. Yet again, Gingrich is a Republican. He is not quite as cunning as Clinton. In fact, whenever he found himself up against Clinton, he was bested by the Boy President.

When all the brag and bounce of Gingrich's intellectual pretense is anesthetized, and the corpus of his intellectual work is subjected to scholarly analysis, what do we see? An eternal graduate student at a mediocre state university has been playing with bits and pieces of the large ideas of Milton Friedman and like-minded political scientists, for instance Edward Banfield. Down the hall is Bill Clinton. The bits and pieces that he plays with are those of Ira Magaziner or Robert B. Reich. Gingrich is a more adventuresome graduate student.

There's more at the link, but I didn't think you'd need all of it to understand The Problem with Newt.

What's A Dangerous Proposition?

Dreher speculates on "dangerous propositions" and nominates his favorite:

That liberal democracy cannot be sustained in a secular, materialistic culture.

And he goes on to recap the old First Things brouhaha, similarly engendered:

"The question here explored, in full awareness of its far-reaching consequences, is whether we have reached or are reaching the point where conscientious citizens can no longer give moral assent to the existing regime."

Then he quotes a fellow named Ross Douthat:

To oversimplify egregiously but not, I think, inaccurately, the modern Anglo-American political tradition came into being because Christians were willing to accept the Christianity-lite political settlement offered by social-contract liberalism - and they were willing to accept it because its major premise, that man was endowed with natural and inalienable rights by Nature's God, was broadly congruent with Christian tradition. In a Lockean-liberal society, the law might not do everything that some Christians would like it to do - compel belief, for instance - but neither would it directly violate basic Christian principles.

There have been tensions in this compromise over the last two centuries, with Christians pushing for more religion in the liberal order, secularists pushing for less. But for most of American history it worked out pretty well, and Christians were at the forefront of the long-running push to ensure that the premises of natural-rights liberalism (which were also Christian premises) found appropriate expression in the laws of the nation - particularly where race was concerned, but also with regard to the unborn, as increasing scientific knowledge about fetal life led to the nineteenth-century bans on pre-quickening abortions. (Or so Ramesh argues...)

However, the Lockean settlement was obviously a long time ago, and most of today's liberals no longer believe in the "endowed-by-their-Creator" theory of human rights. Which is why abortion has become such a flashpoint - because it's the place where modern liberals have instituted a utilitarian approach to killing in place of the older natural-rights-based understanding, and the place where Christians are resisting. This explains, in turn, why pro-lifers make liberal arguments even though the source of their conviction is usually religious: it's not because they're dishonestly concealing their Christianity, but because they still think that rights-based liberalism is the common ground between Christians and secularists, and so they naturally attempt to argue on that ground. And the current pro-life frustration, I think, flows from the fact that pro-choicers have half-abandoned this common ground, but often won't admit it.

THAT'S the kind of thing that starts discussions.

Your 401(k) Statement--Caution!!

The markets-to-date:


You shoulda bought oil, or gold, or silver, hey....

If We Can Save Just One...FISH??

You can't make this stuff up:

The Bonneville Power Administration routinely is forced to release water from one its power-generating dams to benefit a handful of salmon. The number of fish saved? Twenty. The value of the electricity lost downstream? Approximately $77 million -- about $3.85 million per fish.

HT: John Lott

BagManJim: Stuck Record

On television news last night, Doyle responds to a reporter's question:

"Governor Doyle, are OTHER people in your Administration being investigated?"

Doyle:

"I'm not going to comment on any investigation."

"I'm not going to comment on any investigation."

"I'm not going to comment on any investigation."

Kudos to the reporter for asking.

Looks like Xoff has a LOT of work to do, eh?

Haditha--Less Credible Every Day

Most of us understand the term "pattern of practice," which is usually a good indicator of whether an allegation has foundation.

So here, from a blogger/embed, is a bit of information on the 3/1 Marines, who are accused of the Haditha mess.

Worth the read.

D-Day Tale

Yah, it's a little late--but blame Clayton Cramer, from whom this is lifted:

And in the midst of all the grinding hardship, a million Britons kept a secret. Since the summer of 1943, things had been happening on the island of Great Britain, from military encampments suddenly appearing in the Scottish north to huge and inexplicable movements of ships and soldiers all over southwest England. Canadians, Americans, and even their own men began appearing, without unit identification patches, all over the place. No one asked why, and no one ever told. Everyone knew, and yet, no one knew or talked about these activities. While the greatest air and naval armada in human history was being assembled and trained at sites across Britain, the citizens pretended they saw nothing, heard nothing, and they discussed nothing, even among themselves. But they all knew. They knew that one day, as Winston Churchill put it, “The tide will turn.” So I can just imagine the moment that my mother, then a girl of twenty, can never forget and to this day, she cannot talk about without crying.

On the night of June 5th, well after midnight, she and a girlfriend were walking home after working a second shift and catching a music show at a small theater. She had been a university student, but the university had closed, as all male students and professors were in the services and the women were assigned to work for the war department or homeland industries. As they walked, a wave of bombers and cargo planes swept overhead. This elicited no reaction from anybody on the street, as the RAF always launched at night. But then came another wave of heavy transports, which everyone who had been hearing planes for the past five years could tell from the engine sound. Then came another wave. And another. Then the higher, more reedy sound of night fighters. Then more transports. Then more bombers. People came up out of their basements and culverts, and stood staring at the sky and at each other.

Hundreds, and then thousands of people, still standing in complete black-out darkness, started cheering. They struck up the national anthem – ‘God save the King’ – and everyone hugged one another. Then, a thousand voices strong, they sang ‘Rule, Britannia!' As the planes still came overhead in waves, they all knew that, whatever happened, they did not have to pretend anymore – the invasion of Europe had begun. It was D-Day.

Delay on Immigration Bill: NOT Good

Another blogger seems to think that Hastert's procedural shenanigans are a good thing.

Ain't necessarily so.

Hastert has taken the very unusual step of subjecting the Senate Immigration bill to hearings BEFORE it goes to a joint Committee for work. It's entirely possible that this extra lap around the track will kill the bill this session or (at least) put off passage until late in the calendar year.

Here's an authoritative voice on the question:

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, echoed [Frist's] comments a day later, saying voters should be able to assess when they go to the ballot box in November how their lawmakers did on the issue.

Hastert is NOT an enthusiastic backer of the Sensenbrenner legislation--perhaps because the single largest EMPLOYER false-SSAN-filer is in Illinois. Hastert's sensibilities are "moderate," (which is to say that he likes some of the unpalatable elements in the Senate version.)

Let's get it to Joint Committee, clean it up, and VOTE.

Maybe Not In YOUR Lifetime

Pay off Miller Park? Well, maybe--then again, maybe not:

With sales tax revenue continuing to fall below forecasts, members of the Miller Park stadium board are becoming increasingly nervous that they may not be able to retire the stadium sales tax in 2014.

At issue is the 0.1% sales tax that is collected in Waukesha, Milwaukee, Racine, Washington and Ozaukee counties and the board's stated goal that it wants the tax to end in 2014. The revenue is used to retire the debt on the financing of Miller Park.

Through the first five months of this year, the district has received $9.9 million in sales tax distributions from the state, nearly $1.2 million below projections. Compared with the first five months of last year, distributions are down 0.5%, district figures show.

From 1997 to 2002, the average annual growth in the district's sales tax collections was 7.9%, compared with state growth of 4.7% in the same time period. From 2003 to 2005, however, collections decreased an average of 0.11%. Statewide during that period, average growth was 3.4%.

New here's the clue:

For forecast purposes, the district assumes it can get a 3.5% annual return on its investments and banks on a 5.5% annual growth rate in sales tax distributions

The folks who assumed 5.5% annual growth in sales-tax revenues were, ah, optimistic in the extreme.

Another way to put it: they needed to sell this plan, and they picked ridiculous numbers to get people to swallow it...

Coulter--Miscellaneous

Ann Coulter likes to throw bombs...

John Hawkins: If you could give George Bush a few words of advice, what would they be?

Ann Coulter: I would ask him if he'd given any thought to re-joining the conservative movement. I would remind him that he's not eligible to run for President again so how about building a proud legacy of genuine immigration reform, genuine tax reform, and Janice Rogers Brown on the Supreme Court?

(snip)

John Hawkins: Every few months, it seems like a new story pops up that features liberals, in an effort to try to prevent you from speaking, disrupting one of your speeches at a college. Why do you think so many liberals seem to support those tactics which are generally associated with fascists?

Ann Coulter: I think you've answered your own question. At least they can't stop us from speaking by sending out victim-spokespeople anymore. Now I guess they'll have to go back to complaining about "hate speech."

[Or slyly mentioning that conservatives are really ignorant Yahoos...]

(Random Observations)

Joe Wilson: World's most intensely private exhibitionist

John Murtha: The reason soldiers invented "fragging"

Alec Baldwin: Our main source of so-called "greenhouse gases"

And, of course, The Plug:

John Hawkins: Can you tell us a little bit about your new book, Godless.

Ann Coulter: Yes, it's available at fine bookstores everywhere. Look for it behind the ceiling-high stacks of Al Franken and Hillary Clinton books. If you get to the 40-foot pyramid of the Da Vinci Code hardcovers, you've gone too far.

Girls just want to have fun!

Rove's Safe--Maybe Libby, Too

The "nutroots" of Dean-the-Scream fame may soon have to purchase new keyboards as a result of soaking theirs in tears, or spit...

In truth, it has been obvious for SEVEN MONTHS that Rove had done nothing to deserve an indictment. From prosecutor Fitzgerald, the announcement is better late than never. But it's so late as to be an abomination that it took so long. And really, perjury is a charge meant to protect against deliberate lying. If it takes so many, many, many, many, many monts to decide if soembody perjured himself, that's a pretty good sign that the supposed "lie" is, at worst, in such a gray area that the truth is more a matter of perception than of absolutely cut-and-dried facts. Again, dragging the case on for so long was a travesty.

Meanwhile, even the case against Scooter Libby looks like a waste of time -- and I, for three weeks, thought it looked pretty solid. But ever since Bob Woodward came out with his info on the case, it has looked more like a prosecutor desperately seeking vindication or ego satisfaction than like a clearcut case of perjury.

All along, the most obvious and demonstrable, deliberate lies were those told by Ambassador Joe Wilson -- not in court, but in public. Too bad that public lies can't be punished the same way ones in court, under oath, can be!

Not just a waste of time--a waste of money, too.

DNR's "D" Grade

Well, the DNR has earned the "D" part of its moniker--in financial and general business management. And as a result, the soubriquet "Damn Near Russia" may become more realistic.

The auditor's report on DNR is out, and despite the spin-job from DNR (which the JS slavishly copied,) it ain't so pretty.

One example of the spin-cycle: The fish and wildlife program was criticized by auditors in 1998 for running up administrative costs of more than 20% of its total expenditures. Those costs have declined to about 11%, but auditors said the DNR fails to include field staff managers and administrative costs associated with its automated licensing system.

Not so fast, says Rep. Suder (R-Abbottsford.) Two consecutive Legislatures passed measures including Bureau of Fish and Wildlife expenses and the overhead for licensing in that 16 percent. In fiscal year 2004-05 had those expenses been included the actual cost of administration would have been 23.5 percent. In other words, for every dollar hunters and anglers send the DNR almost 25 cents is used to feed the bureaucracy. And guess whose filthy handprints are all over the cause of the under-reporting?

Yup. Jim Doyle (D-Casinos, PI Lawyers, and Teachers)

Not to worry. Scott Hassett, DNR Secretary, has a plan:

...the DNR Secretary stated the agency will need to find “other revenue streams”, bureaucrat speak for wanting even more money from taxpayers. In the alternative, DNR could always harass and fine more members of the public for feeding turkeys, or walking into houses (no-knock) occupied by breast-feeding moms...

HT: Fraley

Dem AG Candidate: "You're A Racist"

Peg Lautenschlager, who managed to blow all her political capital after only about 4 months in office, and who has mis-spent AG Office resources in a style resembling that of Janet Reno, has now descended to the bottom.

She's pulled out the old "RACIST!!!!" trick.

Actually, "Keg," we ARE discriminating folks here in Wisconsin.

That's why you'll need a new source of, ah... beer money... come January.

Milwaukee's Next Auxiliary Bishop...UPDATED

This list is printed due to the assiduous investigatory work of Mike at "Get Up and Get Moving."

Odds are listed first--then the name and comments about each individual.

Makes interesting reading; one that some of you will recognize:

Dan Pakenham – 200-1, was in the cat bird seat but blew it big time with Diocesan priests and Seminary alumni. Has significant problems and more in his parish now. No, no, no!

The update: a priest-friend of mine says that "much of it is accurate..."

Well, well, well.

Executive Earnings

Here's something to make Dan Steininger a happy camper:

The 26 top executives at ToyotaMotor Company earn an average of $320,000. Good money, but hardly obscene.Toyota is a growing, profitable concern.

Compare:

...The heads of America's 500 biggest companies received anaggregate 54% pay raise last year. As a group, their total compensationamounted to $5.1 billion, versus $3.3 billion in fiscal 2003. G. RichardWagoner, Jr, heading up Toyota's rival, General Motors, received totalcompensation of $8.5 million.

(Source: The Daily Reckoning)

Must be the Cost of Living differential, eh?

What's With This "Fear Play Guns" Stuff?

See, Spotted Horse sucks you into his blog by running demi-porn stuff on the Buffett show this weekend.

THEN you get the real stuff.

Boys playing with sticks? Saying "Bang, Bang?" And the teacher reads the parents the Riot Act? Oh, the Horror! the Shame!!

At least, in the article, one of the "experts" admits that it might be genetic, and one parent has the common sense to actually TRAIN his children on how to/not to use guns. Wonder how THAT got past the editors at the JS...

Real-life, over the weekend: a neighborhood creep pulled a pellet gun from a garage and raised it to frighten a group of neighborhood girls. The creep in the story was not the owner of the gun--HIS children had been carefully trained by the fellow, who happens to be a local radio personality.

Nonetheless, because they associated with the creep, the owner's children suffered a punishment. That's how it should work.

Sticks and play guns are exactly that. REAL guns are dangerous. Understanding the difference (the teacher doesn't) and respecting the difference (that's what training and discipline are for) is what separates the men from the boys.

Call Her Names: Coulter's Affrontery in Perspective

Don't like what Ann Coulter said? ...or just how she says it?

Try the reviews:

"The book is one which has the glow and appeal of a fiery cross on a hillside at night. There will undoubtedly be robed figures who gather to it, but the hoods will not be academic. They will cover the face," snarled one, ominously comparing it to a work of the Ku Klux Klan. "This fascist thesis," angrily spluttered another, "...This...pure fascism....What more could Hitler, Mussolini, or Stalin ask for...?" Still others piled on. The book was dismissed as a series of "fanatically emotional attacks" that "succeeded in turning the stomachs of its readers." The author drew howls of outrage, the lesser of which focused on adjectives like "rude" and "obnoxious" before descending into cries of "fascist."

The name of the book was not Godless. And the author was not Ann Coulter. The book that drew such ferocious attention was God and Man at Yale. The author, a recent Yale graduate, was a precocious William F. Buckley, Jr.

...As with Coulter (and many others -- think of talkers/writers Sean Hannity and Mark Levin, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, culture maven David Horowitz, and more), in every single instance their words and actions are met with some firestorm of name-calling, verbal abuse, attempts at censorship and worse. While these furies take different forms, they have exactly the same end goal: to so discredit both message and messenger that they will never again be allowed to exist in polite society again.

The retired Archbishop of Milwaukee, a notorious "liberal" at least confined most of his public remarks to one adjective: "Divisive," when attempting to excoriate those who questioned the liberal agenda.

And the commentator (Jeffrey Lord) who wrote this article identifies the operational "strategy" most utilized by the Left; lacking in intellectually-compelling argumentation, they have nothing left to do but call names, although in some cases they blatantly lie (e.g., the Dan Rather technique, which echoed Dan Schorr's (CBS) lie about Goldwater:

CBS News solemnly reported the week of his nomination that Goldwater's first act after the convention would be to travel to Germany for a visit to "Berchtesgaden, Hitler's one-time stamping ground." And what will the conservative Goldwater do once there? "There are signs," CBS reporter Daniel Schorr said ominously, "that the American and German right wings are joining up..." Got that? Barry Goldwater, said CBS in so many words, was really a Nazi. With a presidential nomination in hand, he was literally heading to Hitler's home to get the international Nazi movement rolling. The story, from the trip to Germany to the visit to Hitler's estate was, of course, false from beginning to end.

Nothing new under the sun.

Daniel Moynihan is rolling in his grave.

Borsuk Gets It

Over the years, Alan Borsuk's work has been more or less focused on education issues, and it's clear that he has a good command of the topic.

Today's piece in the JSOnline is worth reading, even though it's long-ish. It's the second of a 4-part series which began on Sunday.

Borsuk is a bit skittish about what I think is the single biggest problem: the lack of parental involvement--which generally is the most significant precursor of "student problems."

So Here's Doyle's Situation

Ol' Jimbo's position on the Wisconsin Anti-Gay-Marriage Amendment will be problematic for his election campaign, eh...

Image stolen from Marquette Warrior

Even MORE Media BS

The spirit of Dan Rather will just NOT go away:

The AP has caused quite a stir today by publishing an uncorroborated account by a supposed eyewitness to the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The witness, identified as Mohammed, says that Americans beat and stomped Zarqawi until blood flowed from his nose and he died.

...Interesting. Of course, Reuters reported earlier tonight that the house could not be seen from any of the local houses, screened off from the roads and other dwellings by the palm groves that hid it from prying eyes.

So happens I saw a FoxNews report last night in which the FNC reporter walked about in the rubble which used to be the house in question. From the limited views available in that report, it was clear that the house WAS "isolated" and screened by a lot of trees and shrubs.

But hey, just like Haditha--take anybody's word, so long as it demeans US troops.

CIA: More Messy, Day by Day

For openers, we'll grant that the goings-on at the CIA are somewhat shrouded in secrecy (Duhhh)--and as a result, what emerges into the news is not necessarily "complete", or entirely accurate.

That said, Ken Timmerman is no slouch in reporting events in the Beltway; he's assembled a sterling track record going back to his days at the American Spectator reporting on the oh-so-cozy relations between X42, his SecDef, and the PRChina dictators. So when Timmerman writes something, it's usually well-founded.

In an article for Human Events, Timmerman is highly critical of the appointment of Stephen Kappes as DD/CIA proposed by the new Director, Gen. Hayden. "...to many intelligence insiders, the Kappes nomination sends a clear message that the Bush has abandoned its efforts to reform a dysfunctional agency. And that is the most troubling part of this appointment.

"The CIA has been at war with the Bush administration since the beginning," says Richard Perle, the former chair of the Defense Policy board. "What is astounding is the CIA campaign to discredit this administration."

Kappes is clearly a part of the "old guard" at CIA:

Just two months after Porter Goss took over as CIA Director in 2004, he ordered Kappes to fire his deputy, Michael Sulick, for gross insubordination. Kappes refused, and offered his resignation instead -- telling colleagues that Goss would never dare to accept it. He did.

To some intelligence insiders, that made Kappes a hero.

Sulick and others referred to Goss’s aides dismissively as "the Goslings" and refused to take orders from them, claiming they were "political hacks" because they had worked for Goss in Congress. Many in the media jumped in, accusing Goss and his staff of conducting a "witch hunt" for firing Sulick.

But every director of central intelligence has brought his closest aides with him from earlier jobs. This was true with Bill Casey in the 1980s, and with George Tenet in the 1990s. And it will undoubtedly be true of Hayden as well.

Obviously--and in this case, a "close aide" will be Kappes.

Rep. Curt Weldon (R.-Pa.) believes Kappes was a disaster as head of the CIA's directorate of operations, and called him "the ringleader of an internal CIA rebellion" against Goss. "He was one of many in the CIA resistant to needed reforms."

House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R.-Mich.) said Kappes was guilty of "gross insubordination" for his behavior at the agency under Goss and complained that the administration never consulted Congress before choosing him.

There's little question that Curt Weldon is exercised over this appointment. You will recall that Weldon was the Congressmen who blew the whistle on the 9/11 Commission's whitewash of the Able Danger intelligence.

Timmerman goes on to raise a few provocative questions:

Did Kappes encourage former Paris chief of station Bill Murray to compromise the identity of Weldon's Iranian source in Paris? Weldon had gone to great lengths to protect his source's identity, only to have his name appear in a left-wing publication that interviewed Murray. A Kappes protégé, Murray said he was "outraged" that Weldon had attacked the CIA, and called his information "garbage." Outing Weldon’s source put the man’s life at risk.

Was Kappes involved in the decision not to act on information provided by an Iranian defector in late July 2001 during debriefings in Baku, Azerbaijan, that could have helped to prevent the September 11 attacks? The defector not only gave the method of the attack -- hijacked civilian airliners. He identified the perpetrators (al Qaeda operatives trained in Iran and gave the exact date, which the CIA's man in Baku mistranslated as September 10.

What role did Kappes play in the compromise of the CIA's last network of sources in Iran? According to my information Stephen Richer, who was in charge of Middle East operations and who followed Kappes out the door in 2004, doubled the reporting requirements of the network in order to advance his own evaluation. But Richer neglected to double the channels used to communicate with the Iranians. As a result, Iranian intelligence discovered the network of agents and shut them down.

Interesting questions, indeed. Perhaps Our President should ask Hayden and Kappen these questions, personally.

SpiceBoyzzz' Myopic Obsession

After reading the 192nd (289th? 654th?) SpiceBoyzz column complaining about Jim Sensenbrenner's travel, something became apparent. Simply go to the very bottom of the column and what do you see?

Sensenbrenner 6/11
Reynolds 6/7
Reynolds 6/4
Green 6/2
Sensenbrenner 5/28
Jensen 5/25
Thompson 5/24

Myopic obsession disease.

But even if it's curable, who cares?

They Left Him Alive; He's Ungrateful

A man who was beaten by employees of a store he was trying to rob is now suing.
Police say Dana Buckman entered the AutoZone in Rochester, New York, last July, brandished a semi-automatic pistol and demanded cash.

That's when employees Eli Crespo and Jerry Vega beat him with a pipe and held Buckman at bay with his own gun.

Buckman escaped when they retreated into the store to call 911, but he was arrested a week later. He pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery and was sentenced to 18 years in prison as a repeat violent felon.

Now Buckman is suing the auto parts store and the two employees who beat him, claiming they committed assault and battery and intentionally inflicted emotional distress.

In Wisconsin, Screechin'Shirley, the Queen of Hearts, would award this perp a lot of damages.

PRChina's New Spyplane Went Ka-Boom

These characters will try, try, again.

A DULL boom shook the misty bamboo forests of Guangde county, 125 miles southwest of Shanghai, last Sunday, and a plume of smoke rose in the sky, causing Chinese villagers to look up in alarm from their tasks.

Within 24 hours China officially admitted that a “military aircraft” had crashed...

[PRChina news reports] indicated that it was a Russian Ilyushin four-engined cargo jet, rebuilt to house a conspicuous array of radars and codenamed KJ-2000. The doomed flight, they implied, had been a test mission.

The disaster robbed China of 35 of its best electronic warfare technicians, according to sources in Hong Kong. There were also five crew members on board

In 2003 aviation specialists photographed two IL-76 Awacs prototypes, by then codenamed KJ-2000, on test flights over Nanjing. One was #762, the other was coded B-4040.

Late last year the local aviation authorities — which in China are controlled by the military — bought sophisticated Monopulse secondary surveillance radars from Telephonics Corp, a New York-based subsidiary of the Griffon Corporation, which supplies the US Awacs fleet.

The radars were due for delivery early in 2006. Their purpose was stated to be civil aviation, but critics in Congress say the Chinese buy such items for “dual use” in military systems.

According to specifications published by the Federation of American Scientists, such radars can be closely integrated with an Awacs plane to enhance targets. There is now speculation among military and aviation attachés in the region that the ill-fated KJ-2000 may have been testing a hitherto unproven technical capability of precisely this nature when it crashed.

As a reminder: PRChina is NOT our friend.

Plenty of Jobs--in India

Yah. The Bush Administration is not likely to be talking about this:

Bank of America has been steadily moving thousands of tech jobs toIndia. The latest to go are about 100 positions that handle BofA'sinternal tech support.

While many of the bank's Bay Area techies accept the inevitability of
their jobs heading abroad, what rankles them is the fact that, in
many cases, they're being told they have to first train the Indians
who are getting their gigs.

"If people want their severance packages, they have to train their
replacements," a senior engineer at one of BofA's Bay Area facilities
told me. "There's nothing in writing that says this -- the bank's
been careful about that. But it's made clear at meetings what we're
supposed to do."

The "train your replacements or no severance" trick has been done before--in Florida, by Siemens Corp., by the way. Exquisite, no?

Worse, the BofA has been lying about the offshoring program since 1997, when it was initiated--telling the press and its employees that 'if the program is successful, no Bank employees will be laid off.' The Bank cut 900 US employees in 2002.

The program was successful, and the balance of BoA's techies will be cut during this year.

And there's more to come:

Hidden in the bill on illegal immigration passed recently by the Senate are provisions which would comprise the most aggressive expansion of the H-1B program in its history. (The bill is now awaiting conference with the House, but even if that large bill fails, a separate bill with the same provisions regarding H-1B has already been introduced.) The industry lobbyists have always threatened,"Either Congress gives us more H-1Bs or we'll have to move the workoffshore," when in fact the H-1B program is used to FACILITATE movingthe work offshore.

There's no contradiction. H1-B presence on shore is required (about 1 here for every 2 overseas) to make "offshoring" work. The fact is that the H1-B's are cheaper labor. Congressional legislation calling for "prevailing wage" is written so broadly that it is legal (and common) to pay an H1-B about 60% of comparable US workers' wages.

Don't believe it?

The fact is that starting salaries for new computer science graduates have been flat since 1999, obviously belying the industry's claim of a shortage. (See the data on the Bachelor's level in the BusinessWeek column at http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/StartingSalaryErosionBach.txt and see my CIS article for the Master's level, at http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/CIS.pdf) (Private newsletter from Norm Matloff.)

Congress is unified on this--the 2000 H1-B increase pased the Senate 97-1.

Campaign contributions come from "high-tech" executives and companies, not from laid-off techies.

Another Highly Intellectual Offering from the Xoff Crowd

The more you think about it, the more it's clear: Rush is Right.

Y'know his well-worn line to self-describe (and by extension, to describe his audience) always delivered with the necessary Ironic Sarcasm--

"Racist-Bigot-Homophobe-Conservative"....

Yah. That's the level of discourse endorsed by no less than Xoff.

"Morally-Superior-Misdirecting-Manipulative-Twit" comes to mind...

Tom DeLay's Valedictory Speech

An excerpt which deserves wide reading:

“ It is not the principled partisan, however obnoxious he may seem to his opponents, who degrades our public debate, but the preening, self-styled statesman who elevates compromise to a first-principle. For true statesmen, Mr. Speaker, are not defined by what they compromise, but what they don’t.

Conservatives, especially, less enamored of government’s lust for growth, must remember that our principles must always drive our agenda, and not the other way around. For us conservatives, there are two such principles that can never be honorably compromised: human freedom and human dignity.

Conservatism is often unfairly accused of being insensitive and mean-spirited… sometimes, unfortunately, even by other conservatives. As a result, conservatives often attempt to "soften" that stereotype by over-funding broken programs or glossing over ruinous policies. But conservatism isn’t about feeling people’s pain… it’s about curing it. ”

Haditha: A Hoax?

There's more to the story than what the MSM tells you:

On November 20, 2005, Reuters reported that on the previous day an IED killed a US Marine and 15 civilians in Haditha, a town known to be a center of the insurgency, a town as hostile to our forces as the better known Fallujah was. Reuters reported that “immediately after the blast, gunmen opened fire on the convoy” and US and Iraqi forces returned fire, killing 8 insurgents and wounding another in the fight. The paper further reported that “A cameraman working for Reuters in Haditha says bodies had been left lying in the street for hours after the attack.” (Most of us know that "Reuters" is not particularly reliable..)

Tim McGirk of Time wrote about the incident at Haditha for the March 27 issue of the magazine. He unsuccessfully lobbied his editors to use the term “massacre” in the story.

A key source for McGirk’s report that US Marines in Haditha had deliberately attacked civilians was Thaer al-Hadithi. whom McGirk inexplicably described as “a budding journalism student”. He is a middle-aged man, and was subsequently described by the AP as an “Iraqi investigator.”
McGirk also failed to note that Hadithi is “a member and spokesman for the Hammurabi.” The chairman of Hammurabi Organization and Hadithi’s partner in publicizing the “massacre” is Abdul–Rahman al-Mashhadani. It is unknown if he is related to Ali al-Mashhadani [the photographer] but their names suggest a possible relationship, and it beggars belief that as Sweetness& Light notes,

“Abdel Rahman al-Mashhadani just happened to be given a video by and unnamed local. And that he then turned it over to Ali al-Mashhadani who just happens to make videos for Reuters.”

On December 15, 2005 Mashhadani was interviewed by the Institute for War and Peace which described him as “an election monitor.” In that interview he expressed great satisfaction with the election turnout (which in fact was terribly low in Haditha). Why did he not mention to this apparently sympathetic group one word about the supposed “atrocity” which he claimed had occurred three months earlier?

On March 21, 2006 Reuters reported that Hadithi and Mashhadani’s organization, the Hammurabi Organization, had provided the organization was a copy of a videotape showing corpses lined up in the Haditha morgue, claiming these were the bodies of civilians deliberately killed by the Marines. Aside from the suspiciously-timed release of the video and the fact that chairman al-Mashhadani had never mentioned the incident or the tape in December when he was interviewed, the video shows people removing bodies from a home, a report at odds with the Reuters report the day after the incident which spoke of bodies lying in the street.

There's more at the American Thinker's site.

Oh, yes--George Soros is involved, too...

HT: Powerline

Kevin Fisher--Frustrated by Morons

Kevin Fisher, a legislative aide and TV personality, occasionally fills in for Belling. He's a fun-loving guy, whose taste in music is decidedly better than his taste in neckwear.

Regardless, yesterday's show put Kevin into a head-banging mode. I certainly hope he doesn't own a dog because the dog may have been victimized post-show.

Fisher read results of a study which we referenced here--in general terms, the study determined that there are about 240,000 sex-offender illegal aliens in the USA, and those 240,000 sex offenders commited about 1,000,000 sexual crimes while in-country.

So Fisher popped the question: "Are you concerned about these numbers?"

He didn't get exactly what he expected. One caller tried to convince Kevin that 'since we have native-born sex-offenders, what's the big deal about another quarter-million or so who are illegals?' This attitude seemed to be very common. Another, (the infamous "Mike" from 'Tosa, who evidently dropped WAY too much acid on his last visit to Haight-Ashbury) tried to express similar sentiments, but his phone didn't work well. It's likely that the phone connection was disturbed by the NSA tap.

A few callers whose heads were screwed on straight at birth did express concern--and it was not MILD concern, either.

Perhaps what Kevin was looking for was this:

1) The unsecured border is an abysmal failure.
2) Illegals who are convicted of crimes in the US should serve their time and be deported immediately on release from prison, with prejudice. They should never be allowed to return.
3) INS/ICE is run by idiots.
4) Sensenbrenner should add provisions to the Immigration Bill which mandate #2 above.

As to the que sera, sera crowd: let's hope that your mother, wife, sister, or daughter(s) are NOT victimized by one of the 240,000 illegal-immigrant criminals.

And let's also hope that those women in your life have ignored Screechin'Shirley's (the Queen of Hearts) diktat on carrying a concealed weapon.

Abp. Dolan Sends a Few Messages

From Mike, an excerpt from a lengthy email sent to ALL Diocesan priests by Abp. Dolan:

10. May I speak to you about a couple delicate issues? The first would be guidelines about hosting a speaker or a group in the parish or under Church auspices. Some bishops, as you know, have drawn up very detailed rules about this. I have not gone that route, and hope I do not have to. Canon Law, diocesan policy already in place, common sense, and love that all of us have for the Church, should guide us. I have trust in your prudential judgment, and in your ecclesial wisdom that you would never invite or host a speaker or a group that has publicly taken stands blatantly at odds with clear Church teaching. There are speakers or groups who certainly may not be "my cup of tea," but who still stay "within the boundaries," and I trust your judgment about invitations to them. We need dialogue, we are not afraid of respectful probing and earnest examination of Church teaching; but there has to be a limit. One speaker whom I would ask you not to have is Dr. Daniel McGuire. He should never be given an invitation or provided a platform at any parish in the archdiocese. He has recently publicly stated that both Archbishop Weakland and I have welcomed him to any parish in the archdiocese, which necessitates this corrective. His position on abortion - - and on a number of other areas - - is so radically outside Church teaching that his appearance at any parish would be a grave scandal and a cause of disunity in the Church. Dialogue about Church teaching and pressing pastoral challenges is always welcome. But the above speaker is not into dialogue but into clear and purposeful dissent from Church teaching: He gets enough attention without us giving him another platform.

11. The second sensitive area is intercommunion. Recently, two priests approached me very upset because each had lately been at funerals where the celebrant had announced, "All are welcome to receive Holy Communion." I don't blame them for being upset. Such a statement is untrue and unjust. While there are indeed situations where the reception of Holy Communion by a non-Catholic Christian under special circumstances is licit, and while I trust your prudence in following Church discipline to determine such circumstances, it is never pastorally wise or theologically sound to publicly announce that, "All are invited to receive the Eucharist." Please do not do it! The bishops' conference, as you know, has issued a very respectful and sensitive set of guidelines http://www.usccb.org/liturgy/current/intercom.shtml that should be adhered to, and which can easily be re-printed in missallettes and Worship Booklets at liturgies such as funerals, weddings, or other big occasions when non-Catholics are welcome.

Mike also relays that the Archbishop has requested that the LitWonks do not assume control of Masses, resulting in lengthy (and self-absorbed) displays of the usual tripe--which obscures the Mass. After all, the music, while pars integrans of the Liturgy, is just that, rather than the reverse, where Mass is pars integrans of the music.

Things are looking up!!

On Authority, Ecclesial and Other

David Alexander on the nature of authority:

When an authority gives an order, he takes responsibility for the consequences of that order. It is true in military law (lest senior officers go around “pulling rank” on other officers’ subordinates at will), and it is true in the natural law, as well as in natural justice. More to our point, it applies in canon law. Conversely, when a superior is not empowered to give a particular order, and yet persists in doing so, or when he cannot otherwise take responsibility for the outcome even of a legitimate order, his subjects cannot be held accountable for his loss of credibility over the long haul. Such an authority has done this to himself. That is what is happening in Orange County. It is happening elsewhere in the Church.

This applied to Abp. R. Weakland, OSB, and it applies to the twit-priest-'rebels' in this Archdiocese.

Authority is transitive, in a way. And those who undercut or detract from authorities above them can expect little comfort from the Faithful.

Fortney Stark (Candy Heir from Pewaukee) on Zarqawi Killing

You can't make this stuff up:

"This is just to cover Bush's [rear] so he doesn't have to answer" for Iraqi civilians being killed by the U.S. military and his own sagging poll numbers, said Rep. Pete Stark, California Democrat. "Iraq is still a mess -- get out."

HT: John Lott

Is Marc Marotta A Clinton Disciple?

Parse. Parse. Parse.

Marotta, who headed the Department of Administration when the contract was awarded in March 2005, told the Journal Sentinel in October that he had not had any contact with the company [Adelman Travel] after the bid process officially started in December 2004.

Records introduced in the trial show phone calls were exchanged between Marotta's office and Adelman Travel when the state decided to use a "best and final" process to decide whether to go with Adelman or Omega World Travel, a company that had narrowly beaten Adelman in the initial bid considerations.

It's entirely possible, of course, that Marotta did not PERSONALLY speak with Adelman Travel "after the bid process officially started."

OK, Marc.

Homosex "Marriage," Jersey Girls, and Mis-Direction

As the Ann Coulter vs. "Jersey Girls" controversy has proven, the Left is very adroit at manipulation of opinion. Cindy Sheehan and Jack Murtha are examples of similar smokescreens.
The idea is very simple: mis-direction. Murtha, Sheehan, and the Jersey Girls rarely, if ever, argue the merits of stamping out terrorism or "democratizing" Iraq. Rather, they argue that "war has some bad consequences."

Any damn fool KNOWS that "War Has Some Bad Consequences." It's almost insulting to have to listen to these people yap about that. But we HAVE to listen with some respect, because, after all, the "Jersey Girls" et.al. have suffered personally as a result of war.

As long as the Left can get away with the Mis-Direction Manipulation ploy (aka the Liberal Moral Superiority Play), they seem to have the high ground.

Same game is played on the question of Homosex "Marriage." Rather than addressing the real question of whether Western Society will accord homosex couplings the sacred status granted heterosexual marriage, (thereby derogating real marriage and attempting a positive-law repeal of the Natural Law,) the Left runs the Mis-Direction Manipulation.

One of their favorite irrelevant arguments: "Divorce is bad." (Sounds a bit like "War Has Some Bad Consequences," eh?)

NO KIDDING!! Divorce is bad. We don't need homosex propagandists to tell us that...

Their point, of course, is that "stable marriage" is good--and the implication is that homosex "marriages" are the ones depicted in the fairy tales: 'happily ever after.'

Well, homosex "happy-ever-after" is a fairy tale, alright:

According to a study by the Amsterdam Municipal Health Service, the lifespan of a gay union averages one and a half years. Similar stats on heterosexual marriage found the average for heterosexual marriage to be about 10 years. So society and government do not reap the benefits of stability and permanence from gay marriage (and divorce) that we reap from heterosexual unions. ...The Amsterdam study found that after five years, none of the male homosexual unions were monogamous.

What we have here is, ah, Flaming Hypocrisy.

The Mis-Direction Manipulation is a good one--been around since Eve swallowed that apple. But it hasn't ever produced good results.

WI. Dept of Public Instruction In Spotlight

Yah, sometime in the next 12 months or so, Wisconsin's DPI and its wonzo-Lefty Superintendent, Ms. Burmeister, will get to make a very interesting decision:

The national Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will decide June 29 whether to endorse routine vaccination with Gardasil. That endorsement is critical if a vaccine is to become a standard of care.

It then will be up to individual states to decide whether to add the vaccine to the list of others required before students may attend public schools.

The controversy arises because the vaccine is recommended for girls ages 9-26.

Yup. 9-year-olds.

Gardasil, manufactured by Merck & Co. Inc., protects against the two types of HPV responsible for about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. The vaccine also blocks infection by two other strains responsible for 90 percent of genital wart cases.

Any aspirin (or cold tablet), held tightly between the knees, will have even better effects.

Bolton to Irrelevant UN Twit: Eat Your Remarks

John Bolton's picturesque language:

“Maybe it is fashionable in some circles to look down on Middle America, to say they don’t get the complexities of the world and they don’t have the benefit of continental education and they are deficient in so many ways,” Mr Bolton added. “It is illegitimate for an international civil servant to criticise what he thinks are the inadequacies of citizens of a member government.”

...He also hinted that the US Congress... might reconsider US funding to the UN, which accounts for 22 per cent of the organisation’s annual budget. “Congress has the power of the purse and they feel quite strongly on a bipartisan basis that America has a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent, even people from Middle America,” he said, with a note of sarcasm.

Before Mr Bolton arrived in London, Kofi Annan, the UN chief, tried to play down the controversy. “I think the message that was intended is that the US needs the UN, and the UN needs the US, and we need to support each other,” Mr Annan said. “I think the speech by my deputy should be read in the right spirit and let’s put it behind us and move on.”

This blog doesn't often discuss the UN; but it's perfectly apparent that the UN is plagued with the same Bureaucratic Superiority Complex that can be found in Washington DC, or Madison, WI.

And Bolton has a very good solution: cut off the money. Works the same everywhere.

Zarquawi Spike

This is the USA's Internet response time chart. Notice the time/date of the spike (it's Mountain Time Zone)--approx 6:35AM on 6/8. Must be about when the news services got the announcement about the execution--the 'net got REAL slow from traffic....

ATTN: Rep. Green Campaign Gurus

An interesting little tidbit from Levin:

Don't be fooled. Brian Bilbray won yesterday because that election was another referendum on illegal immigration. Two significant events occurred within days of the vote: 1. John McCain withdrew from a fundraiser for Bilbray over his disagreement with Bilbray's pro-enforcement position; and 2. Bilbray's opponent was caught encouraging illegal aliens to vote. The pattern is clear: The electorate, and certainly Republicans, oppose the open-borders crowd. And every time the issue is before the voters, enforcement wins. This is another loss for McCain and his 2008 prospects.

The Sitting Slimeball in the WI. Governor's mansion has made his positions on illegals clear: he doesn't give a damn.

Seems to me there's an opportunity here, particularly since AG candidate Bucher has made some practical and useful proposals on the topic.

Homage to Owen's Map Game

Go to the yellow "KaBoom"--that's the magic spot. It was (most likely) Task Force 145 which pinpointed the (now-dead) scumbag. Other spots TF 145 hit while on the hunt appear in red.

Coulter's "Godless"--Reviewed (Sarcasm Alert)

From BlameBush:

Right-wing hatemonger and purveyor of hate, Ann "Nazi Bitch" Coulter, has upchucked another one of her hateful hatemongering tomes of hate and, as expected, it is packed with her typical hate-filled rhetoric, lies, half truths, and lies. Indeed, there are so many things wrong with this book that I don’t know where to begin. Let’s start, then, with the entire premise.

...she completely ignores the fact that it is we, the enlightened Progressives of America, who more closely adhere to the altruistic teachings of Christ. Was it not Jesus and his Mary Chain who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor? Was it not Christ himself who stood upon the Mound of Avocados and proclaimed, “Merrily I say unto you, give unto others what belongs unto someone else?” If He didn’t, He should have, and Coulter would do well to remember it the next time Republicans cut taxes, stealing food from the very mouths of the poor and putting it right into the pockets of the wealthy.

...Coulter and her evangelical ilk have hijacked Christ’s message of love and acquiescence to parasites, twisting it into a hate-filled instrument of self-righteous intolerance. Let us not forget that this is the same Ann Coulter who, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, turned the blame away from Bush and rushed to accuse Middle Eastern Muslim males with smoking trousers, demanding we “invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity”. I doubt Christ would approve of such an attitude

Read it all. This guy is really, really GOOD...

Kohl & Feingold Favor Homosex "Marriage"

Hope that news doesn't knock you over with shock.

Read the WHOLE Story on Labor Shortage

The reported "labor shortage" in Wisconsin has some folks in a tizzy; but one can be justifiably skeptical of the reports.

The Milwaukee JS coverage today includes an interview with the President of Badger Meter:

Why build new facilities in Mexico rather than near its Brown Deer headquarters?

"It is easier to hire people," said Richard Meeusen, chairman, president and chief executive officer. "It has been getting harder to hire skilled people" in Wisconsin.

"Skilled people" in Mexico vs. Wisconsin? Kinda depends on precisely what skills. It's certainly not machining, nor CNC/automated machinery programming.

We suspect that it's a total compensation issue. And sure enough, here are the magic words:

Among the challenges of employing more people in Wisconsin is the cost of health care, the WMC report found. On a per-employee basis, almost half the firms said that health care costs have gone up between 11% and 20% in the past year, while only 3% said they did not increase.

Not to mention two other oppressive features of doing business in Wisconsin:

Reducing taxes was the most important thing Wisconsin's government could do to help the business climate, followed by reducing regulation, the respondents said

But there's more. Over the last 10 years or so, but particularly in the period between 9/11 and mid-2005, Wisconsin's manufacturing job base has been decimated. A lot of factories closed. When that happens, it has an effect: perspicacious youth look to other career fields, as do their suddenly-unemployed parents.

Therefore, besides the general shortage of younger people in the job market, there is a specific shortage of younger people who are entering technical schools in "industrial arts" curricula.

So yes, there is a "shortage." But there IS an economic component (wages/benefits are not attractive) AND a 'historical' component (plants and jobs come and go--is THIS a career?); both of these components have an impact.

More Problems for Abp. Dolan

It's been demonstrated that the Archbishop of Milwaukee has a lot of problems on his plate, and they just keep coming.

An Archdiocesan priest who left the priesthood now intends to attempt marriage--at Trinity Episcopal church in Wauwatosa. It is reported that "a number of [Catholic] priests and other ministers" will participate as readers, musicians, etc., etc.

Won't that be just... special?

But that's not all. This ex-priest intends to marry a woman who is currently in charge of an "evangelization" program at a Milwaukee parish (or at least, that's what the Parish website says.)

We DO know that this will be the second trip 'down the aisle' for the bride, as well.

"Evangelism" has sure changed since I was a kid.

The Left's #1 Tactic

This observation from LawDog--a fellow who lives in Texas--but who is fed up with the crap of the Left:

Tactic #232: When you're losing, accuse the other side of racism.*sigh*

Used to be this was an effective tactic. You find yourself in the middle of a losing streak, just point your finger and yell, "Racism!" and the other guy would start crawfishing, yelping denials and looking guilty as hell.

Dirty pool, but it worked a treat.

I sincerely hope that the over-use of this tactic has rendered it useless, particularly in this debate.

Securing our borders is too important of a topic to be sidetracked by one side jumping up on the table and shrieking, "Oh my God, Racism!" when they notice that they aren't winning the debate.

Compensation Rants: Folkbum vs. Reality

Heh. Jay wants to pick a fight with McIlheran.

Ol' Jay uses the usual argument--that teachers take Lamborghini bennies to compensate for their low, low salaries.

But how "low" ARE the salaries?

US Dept. of Labor publishes a handy-dandy series of charts which are useful.

Average high-school teacher in Wisconsin earns $45, 460.

Average middle-school teacher in Wisconsin earns $44,380.

Average grade-school teacher in Wisconsin earns $45,030.

Average of ALL OCCUPATIONS in Wisconsin: $35,660. (In 2002, it was $32,464.) Of course, this number includes (presumably) a large percentage of people who have not earned a 4-year degree in Liberal Arts as opposed to engineering or sciences. So let's look at some of the 'degree-required' or at least 'professional,' non-management categories.

Claims Adjusters: $45,470.

Employment/Recruitment: $46,130.

Credit Analysts: $49, 130.

Chemists: $50, 690.

Market Research Analysts: $62,460.

Dieticians/Nutritionists: $46,780.

Registered Nurses: $55,060.

Mailmen: $42,360.

Production SUPERVISORS: $49, 890. (Generally degree-required, responsible for 7-8 people.)

It is noteworthy that the "Average of All" number has increased by 9.8% since 2002--or by 3.28%/year (2002-2005.)

But to Jay's point--the teachers are not really "sacrificing" current income, at least in comparison to others with similar educational requirements. The cost of health for most Wisconsin workers has increased--deductibles and co-pays are now running (usually) a total of $3,000/year/family, or $1,500/year/single. IN ADDITION, health and dental premium payments are typically running between $100-$300/month. IN ADDITION, retirement plans now consist of 401(k) contributions, usually 3% of annual wage/salary.

And all those other folks work 12 months a year...

C'mon Jay, get a life.

Homosex "Marriage" Loses in Alabama; Tactics Update

Buried at the very end of the MS-NBC report on elections around the country is the following line:

Also in Alabama, voters passed a ban on gay marriage by a 4-to-1 margin.

Of interest is the "comments" section in yesterday's post on the Federal Homosex "marriage" amendment, found here. Mr. Drury is a pleasant interlocutor, and what he has to say is interesting, but not all that pleasant.

The homosex lobby evidently intends to utilize a somewhat sleazy approach in their VERY active lobbying effort at the Federal level. As mentioned in the post, it is very important to that group that the Federal amendment fails, which means that they will use whatever means are available to defeat it. So far, their effort has been successful.

THAT tells us that sometime downstream they expect a SCOTUS ruling which will overturn the Alabama results--as well as the similar results in other States, like Wisconsin.

So: on the one hand, the Homosex Lobby argues that SCOTUS will accede to a "States' Rights" argument--on the OTHER hand, the Homosex Lobby anticipates that the Court will trample States' rights, as Levin pointed out (see my linked post.)

Who says propaganda doesn't work?

Hmmmmm.

Illegal Preferences

At a political event last night, a prominent Congressman reminded me of certain provisions in the Senate-passed Immigration bill.

One of them is highlighted by Texas Hold'Em:

Illegal aliens will be guaranteed in-state tuition rates in all 50 states. Your kid will have to pay out-of-state tuition if he or she crosses the state line, but not the alien who entered the United States illegally.

What the Congressman said (not mentioned in the quote above) is that this particular provision will cause REAL trouble for Wisconsin citizens' children who want to go to a UW-System school.

The Regents have a rule providing that 'no more than 75% of UW system students can be Wisconsin-native (resident) students.'

So when illegal aliens become de facto "in-state" tuition-payers, THEY occupy "Wisconsin-native (resident)" places--and YOUR children may not be able to secure a place in a UW-school.

And you thought that only the UW-administration hates Wisconsin-resident children, eh?

"Cheap" Ethanol?

At one of the bazillion graduation parties over the weekend, a friend confidently assured me that 'ethanol is cheaper than gas.'

I told him to get acquainted with the CBOE, which would tell him otherwise in hard, cold prices.

Beyond that, thanks to Jib, we learn that the GWB Ethanol Plan has an interesting feature:

Mitchell says the ACGA calculates that the other part of the administration’s plan – paying the 51-cent per gallon blenders’ tax credit to gasoline distributors on the imported ethanol – would cost taxpayers $1.7 billion for every billion gallons of imported ethanol

That's $1.70 a gallon in tax credits.

Cheap, my fourth-point-of-contact...

Gay Marriage? Just Say "No"

As one might expect, Althouse has joined others (Ted Kennedy, D-Alcohol Interests) and Russ Feingold (D-Self-Glorification) in not-too-subtle disparagement of the proposed Federal Amendment to bar homosex "marriage."

The most telling argument they all make, because they cannot make an argument on the merits, is that Federalizing marriage regulations is an affront to States' Rights.

There's a good deal of irony in that argument, since States' rights have never, NEVER, been near and dear to the Left. (Think Lawrence v. Texas...)

As usual, Levin provides the applicable retort:

Let's take a step back. Who started this battle? The so-called gay-rights groups, who developed a litigation strategy of cherry-picking states where they thought activist judges would impose their definition of marriage on the public. And they succeeded in Massachusetts...

...the amendment process is a reaction to judicial activists who seek to crush the public will...

Some have argued that marriage is a state issue. But that hasn't always been the case. Indeed, polygamy was outlawed by federal statute in the 1860's. More importantly, federalism is about the sharing of power between the federal and state governments. The amendment process is the means by which the states get to participate in power-sharing decisions. After all, it takes three-fourths of the states (38) to adopt an amendment. Therefore, if 38 states believe they need protection from judicial activists, they will support the amendment. Our understanding of constitutional government has been so degraded that when a court, in effect, amends the Constitution it's accepted as almost commonplace. But if there's an attempt to trigger the legitimate, formal amendment process, the effort is disparaged.

Umnnh...yeah. It's not hard to imagine that 38 States will ratify this, effectively removing the issue from the hands of the "positivists" in legal circles and the judiciary. After all, wherever a State has had the opportunity to vote on the issue, the Homosex "marriage" crowd has lost, and lost big.

The reason the Left argues so strenuously is that they KNOW they will lose when it goes to the States; and they prefer the rulings of the Unelected Blackrobes to the wisdom of the People.