I disagree witht the use of the phrase "get mixed up with", which implies that the student just happened to fall into bad company, that it isn't his fault and he doesn't bear full responsibility for his choices. Hey, he didn't end up in camoflage dancing around a laboratory facility on a drunken frat prank. He made the (ir)rational choice to join the animal rights cause and to take terrorist action. He should bear the full consequences.
Neal Boortz details what Democrats mean when they say that a judging candidate is "out of the mainstream".
1.A belief in a strict interpretation of the terms of the United States Constitution.
2.The belief in the sovereignty of the individual.
3.The belief that the role of government, particularly the federal government, should be strictly limited.
4.The concept that oral sex is, indeed, just what we all know that it is. Sex.
5.The belief that government functions should be carried out by local governments, and that state or federal governments should play a role only when issues are broadened beyond the local level.
6.The belief that all Americans should be treated equally under the law, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, etc. This includes the belief that the government and taxpayer-funded agencies should not discriminate for or against any individual on the basis of race or gender.
7.The belief that individuals have a right to the fruits of their labor, and that government should only seize the property of individuals when such seizure is absolutely necessary to fund the proper and constitutionally appropriate functions of government.
8.The idea that elected officials should not be allowed to lie under oath and remain in office.
Tim Blair takes on David Suzuki, Canada's least desired export. I wonder why no nation ever imposes tarrifs on visiting bloviators? No word on David's own compliance with the Kyoto accord, which would see him reduce his hot air emmissions by 50%, although he may already be buying credits from lesser known bloviators.
Suzuki on money: "What is real wealth? I happen to think clean air and clean water and fish in the sea and forests are the things I really value." Fish in the forests? Why, certainly! The bark-clad hermit can often be seen wandering the woods of Newfoundland armed with his trusty club, in the hope of bringing down a tuna or two.
No word on when Suzuki last tried to buy a shirt by dragging five trees to the store or getting a loan based on the air in his lungs. Amazing, I never realized that a caveman 10,000 years ago was wealthier than Bill Gates. Shows how much I know, confusing wealth and prosperity with little things like being able to get food anytime without having to hunt it, safety from diseases that have plagued humanity for thousands of years, shelter, knowledge and the ability to commicate across the globe. These things must be clear after receiving a few CBC grants.
Jeff indicates this is the first of three articles. Good. I eagerly await the next two.
I've said it before, but I will not go to Cuba like other Canadians while it is still a communist state. I figure I'd spend every moment there pissed off as hell, and even odds that I'd be deported before long.
Larry Elder takes on Aaron Sorkin on his new "West Wing" episode which tries to replay Bush Vs.Gore. Specifically, Sorkin's view that Gore is intellectually superior to Bush. Every american should read this column. If you always thought Gore wasn't as smart as everyone told you, this confirms everything.
"At the outset, it should be pointed out that these contemporary pacifists are not cut from the same cloth as history’s grand Mahatmas, whose neutrality may have sometimes been in error but who were people of large and often courageous spirit. They took the tough pathway toward their High Ideals and would follow their principles into the jailhouse and perhaps into the grave. One would feel very bad about training the water cannon on them.
Not so the new breed, which appears to be largely made up of self-absorbed snots. When the heat shows up, they run. If they get jugged, they get someone to post bail, preferably on Daddy’s AmEx card. Some do a bit of car-burning and looting on the side. They blossom most brilliantly in the spotlight, which they are forever seeking, and they hail from the expected provinces: Hollywood, the Ivy League, the Ivory Tower, Trust Fund City. Many hold dual citizenship.
Worse yet, they insist on an intellectual superiority when in fact they fail to make even the simplest of distinctions. Soon after the September slaughters, for instance, 120 students and their masters walked out of classes at Brown University while chanting, “One, two, three, four, we don’t want a racist war.” This seems to suggest that we bombed the Taliban for reasons of wrap-around headwear, not because of complicity in the mass murder of several thousand Americans. These students seem to forget that America will most definitely bomb white people when required, as the survivors of numerous German cities can attest. Maybe the history department had to drop that sort of information in order to provide a full accounting of the Sioux Nation’s central banking system.
My prediction: NOW and other feminist organizations will have little to say on this. The Bellicose Woman brigade (as per Instapundit) is going to have a lot to say about it. here's hoping for a widespread Brigade mobilization.
For example I'm a gum farmer from Sudan, I sell my gum to Rowntrees Ltd. in the UK so they can make fruit pastilles. I want Sudanese dinars, Rowntrees pay pounds sterling, I sell the pounds for dollars (Tobin tax time), I sell the dollars for dinars (Tobin tax time). Minor currencies are always quoted against the dollar, so if you come from a small country you pay the tax twice - and this regressive tax helps the developing world?
I know, nattering anti-Americanism won't disappear, there are too many academic and political careers erected on it. Sept. 11, however, clarified the choice -- the stark choice -- between civilized behavior, as exemplified by America, and nihilistic barbarism.
Yes, there are too many careers built on blaming the US, no matter what. That is not going to change. Rall, Fisk, Said and Chomsky are never going to come around to reality, never going to be another David Horowitz. The sad thing is that sooner or later, if they ever come up with a few valid points. We'll probably never notice. The Boy who cried wolf comes to mind.
The baying is never going to stop. Fortunately, I get the sense that neither will we. As long as they keep producing the garbage, we'll keep throwing it out by Fact Checking their asses.
(Side Note: It's such a dammed shame that "Fact Check Your Ass" doesn't shorten into a cool acronym.)
Just wondering, how many academic careers have been formed on a base of being pro-american?
I liked what I saw, at first. This seemed to be an orgainization with which we could do business. Then I read the list of their policies, which is essentially a laundry list of socialist ideas. [sound of brakes, glass breaking]
Now, the only use the GMC has for them is that of fodder, shock troops, useful idiots.
Hey, as long as the score is by David Arnold, I'm happy. His music for the last two movies has been perfect and I still play the CDs regularly.
For the movie after that though, I have a few suggestions. Things I'd love to see happen in the Bond franchise.
First, Sean Connery must return. Not as Bond, but as a Bond Villian. There hasn't been a truly memorable Bond villian in quite a few movies. How many of the names can you remember? I'll guess that Scaramanga (The Man With The Golden Gun) is probably the last one you'll recall. Connery would be perfect, and he hasn't played a villian that often. (Asides from the utterly excrable Avengers movie a few years ago. I want that 90 minutes back) The in jokes could easily be overdone, but just putting in one or two would be worthwhile. It would be an epic confrontation.
Second, bring back SPECTRE, or something like it. Returning villians are the greatest. Yes, Blofeld is dead, but did his organization die with him? What happened to Spectre Island? Did Blofeld have inheritors? Sons? Daughters? Has SPECTRE been busy building a plan for a decade or so? Of course, this idea does run into one obstacle: Austin Powers. Blofeld and Spectre have been so thoroughly mocked that it might be very hard not to bring that to mind instantly.
Third, pretty much half of the Bond movies have had capitalists as their villians. (Goldfinger, Zorin, Drax, the last two villians whose names escape me, etc.) How about an evil bureaucrat for a change. They've got access to pots of money ($50,000 for a hammer? Really Mr. Bond, where did your think the money went?), live the high lifestyle we associate with Bond villians, can gain ridiculous amonts of power and info and are universally hated. How about a mercenary army? (With the appropriate weapons. Hmmm, was much advanced equipment lost or decommissioned with the "Peace Dividend?")
"We, including I, were saying, 'Capitalism is moving toward a catastrophe, whereas we are developing well.' Of course, that was pure propaganda. In fact, our country was lagging behind,"
Today's Opinion Journal explores the disparities between the rich and poor that exist in Cuba. I note that the disparity between rich and poor that is so deplorable in the US, gets a free pass in Cuba among the left. Never mind that most Cubans would be very happy to exchange their Cuban poverty for what is considered poverty in the US.
A Harvard student takes on Harvard's appointment of one of Castro's stooges as a Professor.
Jay Norlinger of NRO has a few observations about the US's relations to Cuba as well. Worth checking out.
-Jean Chretien, March 11th, 2002, Six months after the WTC attack, speaking on the idea of building a monument to the 25 Canadians who dies in the attack.
Right. There's scholarship funds to be named after dead Liberal politicians, studies to be commissioned, whether or not anything is actually delivered, canoe Museums to be built in Shawinigan, Commonwealth conferences to jet off to and so on. Real priorities.
This man has no human empathy. Remember when the King of Jordan died a few years ago and Chretien said there was no way he could have attended the funeral? Remember how it turned out he was off skiing and could easily have made it if he'd decided to?
A couple of weeks ago, I took Megan McArdle's suggestion and joined in her Googlebomb to bring her message to as many people searching for the R.Kelly or Daniel Pearl videotapes as possible. The hits for it have died off to nothing now, so I'm not spoiling anything by discussing it.
The saturday after posting the link, I was checking my stats and the referrers. I was suprised to see that about 20% of my last hits had been goole searches for the tapes. I was surprised. I never expected that many. Over the following week, I found that 20% was the minimum such searches formed of my hits. Sometimes it was half.
That was sobering, to think that there really are that many sick people out there. Still, there is the satisfaction of thinking how many of them got Megan's message.
Power. Order. Stormtroopers. The choice is obvious.
Damm straight. Any chance he'll run a campaign in Canada too? He'd be perfect. First, we have a separatist problem he could cure. His latest TV spot (called a "trailer" for some reason) shows him committing himself to not allowing the Republic he rules to be split in two by separatist factions. Perfect. Second, we're used to power being concentrated in the hands of an elected ruler with no possible change in government in sight. Perfect.
The Imperial Party favors a 95% tax rate. We've got better things to do with your money than you do.
International Trade and NAFTA: The Imperial Party doesn't care much for Trade Federations, although they are handy for blockades...
Juvenile Drinking & Smoking: The Imperial Party encourages the youth of America to be responsible, but we don't need to see their identifcation...
Gun Control: The Imperial Party strongly supports an individual's right to own and carry a gun.They may be clumsy and random, but there's nothing like a good blaster at your side, kid.
Hopefully his campaign will pick up a few more votes than the infamous 1996 candidacy of Cthulhu for President" ("Why Settle For the Lesser Evil?")
These recent raids represent the first time since Mogadishu that any civilized military force has confronted the terrorists in their own lair -- in close-quarter fighting through narrow lanes and passageways. It is reminiscent of the battle for Amman, Jordan, in 1970, when the late King Hussein sent troops into the Palestinian camps sheltering Black September. The success of this latest Israeli operation has sent a shock through the Palestinian leadership. They tend to negotiate when they are scared.
While Muslims account for almost a quarter of mankind, their share of the global wealth is less than 6%. Nearly two-thirds of the world's poorest, those who live on under $2 a day, are Muslim, while not a single Muslim country figures among the world's 30 richest nations.
[...]
Of the 30 active conflicts in the world today, 28 concern Muslim governments and/or communities. In the past two decades at least 2.5 million people have died in the wars fought within or between Muslim states.
Two-thirds of political prisoners are held in Muslim countries, which also carry out 80% of all executions in the world. Muslims also account for nearly 80% of all the world's refugees.
[...]
As for Bouteflika, rather than lamenting the absence of an efficient 11 squad, he should explain why Algeria, which earns US$20-billion a year from energy exports, is unable to feed its people or provide drinking water for its capital.
The Chrétien government has paid a company with close Liberal ties a total of $550,000 to produce a report of which no trace can be found, documents obtained by The Globe and Mail show. [...]
It will now prove difficult for the government to defend the $1.1-million in contracts to a generous Liberal donor, with little to show for its payment but 122 pages for the second report.
Groupaction and an affiliated company gave $70,000 to the Liberal Party of Canada between 1998 and 2000.
A little math here. $1,100,000 divided by 122 equals $9000 per page. I guess the $70k contribution is just the cost of doing business.
Senator Palpatine, to Anakin Skywalker: "I see you becoming the most powerful of the Jedi.."
Scene: Slave I chasing a smaller ship in the middle of an astreroid field, launches missile which strikes a gigantic asteroid instead, splitting it into a thousand humoungous spinning pieces.
Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) To Owi-Wan Kenobi: "You must join me, Obi wan. Together we can stop the Sith!"
Scene: Massive ground battle: More battle droids, droidekkas and massive spider like walkers going at it furiously.
Scene: Anakin Skywalker in a lightsaber duel with unnamed opponent. Anakin wielding a lightsaber in each hand.
Final Scene: Group of about twenty jedi surrounded on the battlefield, hundreds of droids closing in blasters blazing......
Best of all, not one single solitary shot of Jar-Jar Binks. Meesa liking that.
If saving an entire people from extinction earns less than a decade's worth of appreciation, then nothing we do in the future will matter much either. In the same manner, we should assume that the billions of dollars that go to Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine to help "moderates" bring not thanks for our largess, but rather contempt for our naiveté. It would be far more intellectually honest — and cheaper — simply now to allow them all to be the enemies that they wish to be rather than the friends they do not.
See things as they are, rather than as you wish they were. Seeing what you wish is usually to the other party's benefit, not yours. Moreover, the other party is not going to help you or encourage you to face truth.
