Sunday - April 13, 2008

Extremist ideas are being spread by Islamic study centres

The story isn’t exactly new, but seems to be a continuous one.  And a bothersome one it is.

‘Extremism’ fear over Islam studies donations
By Ben Leach
Last Updated: 1:00am BST 13/04/2008

Extremist ideas are being spread by Islamic study centres linked to British universities and backed by multi-million-pound donations from Saudi Arabia and Muslim organisations, a new report claims.

Eight universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, have accepted more than £233.5 million from Saudi and Muslim sources since 1995, with much of the money going to Islamic study centres, according to the report.

The total sum, revealed by Anthony Glees, the director of Brunel University’s Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, amounts to the largest source of external funding to UK universities.

Arab donors have argued that their gifts to academic institutions help to promote understanding between the West and the Islamic world. However, Prof Glees claims in his unpublished report that the propagation of one-sided views of Islam and the Middle East at universities amounts to anti-Western propaganda.

Prof Glees attracted controversy in 2005 when he claimed that up to 48 universities had been infiltrated by fundamentalists and warned that the threat posed by radical groups should be “urgently addressed”.

At a conference in London on Thursday, the Government is expected to call for the opening of more Islamic study centres at British universities. Last year, ministers declared Islamic studies a “strategically important subject” and put aside £1 million for the teaching of the subject, as part of a counter-radicalisation drive.

Universities that have accepted donations from Saudi royals and other Arab sources include Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, University College London, the London School of Economics, Exeter, Dundee and City. Prof Glees says Government policies “push the wrong sort of education by the wrong sort of people, funded by the wrong sorts of donor”.

He added: “The Government must reconsider its far-reaching, security-driven plan to use higher education in the fight against the radicalisation of young British Muslims. If it proceeds, it will create the very situation the Government wants to avoid: the development of self-imposed Muslim apartheid in the UK.”

He called on the Government to ban universities from accepting money from Saudi or Islamic groups to fund Islamic studies; for all university donations to be made public, and for a public inquiry into foreign funding. Major donations include £20 million from the late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia towards the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, due to open next year, which is associated to the university.

for the rest > http://tinyurl.com/5szfeg

Posted by Drew458     on 04/13/2008 at 09:39 AM   
Filed Under: • RoPMA • Terrorists •  
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OBAMA ‘BELITTLES SMALL-TOWN AMERICA’

The Sunday Morning Headlines

Barack Obama regrets comments about ‘bitter’ small-town Americans

Well sure he does. Now.

By Tim Shipman in Washington and agencies
Last Updated: 3:13am BST 13/04/2008

Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has been knocked off balance after the Democratic White House frontrunner was caught on tape apparently belittling the fears of small-town Americans who have lost their jobs.

Senator Barack Obama speaks at a town hall meeting at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana

The senator from Illinois was forced into a frantic damage limitation exercise after a recording emerged in which he appeared to dismiss impoverished blue collar workers as bitter individuals who have turned to God, guns and immigrant bashing to make themselves feel better.

In comments which may seriously damage his chances of winning the forthcoming Pennsylvania primary election, Mr Obama told fundraisers: “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them.

“It’s not surprising then they get bitter. They cling to guns, or religion, or antipathy to people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

His rivals and political commentators seized on the comments, pronouncing them a watershed moment that raises questions about whether he understands many of the people he hopes to lead - for whom religion and the right to bear arms are positive and wholesome aspects of their lives, not a crutch fashioned from bitterness.

Mr Obama, campaigning in Indiana, initially refused to apologise for his remarks, but last night admitted they were ill chosen.

“I didn’t say it as well as I should have,” he said at a campaign rally at Ball State University in Muncie.

He later added: “If I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that.”

Mr Obama has recently narrowed Mrs Clinton’s lead to between four and seven points in the latest polls, after pouring record sums of money into television in the state.

In the last three weeks alone, he has spent more than $6m, three times that of his rival. As a result, an average voter in the major cities and the Philadelphia suburbs, the key to the election, can expect to see each Obama advert more than 20 times.

A media monitoring group last week said he has now screened 100,000 commercials nationwide this year - five times the number John Kerry aired as he won the 2004 nomination.

But he has struggled to win over blue collar workers, hit hardest by the economic downturn and competition from overseas jobs. The forum in which he made the comments - an upmarket fundraiser with wealthy Californians last weekend - appeared to reinforce claims by his opponents that Mr Obama is an arrogant elitist, with little feeling for ordinary voters.

Michael Goodwin, a columnist for the New York Daily News, accused Mr Obama of “de-legitimising the way people choose to live in America” and argued that the furore would be even more damaging for Mr Obama than the previous row over inflammatory comments by his pastor Jeremiah Wright.

for more of the story if any still interested, >>> http://tinyurl.com/6396rd

Posted by Drew458     on 04/13/2008 at 09:24 AM   
Filed Under: • Politics •  
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GLOBAL WARMING CENSORSHIP IS OK, BUT ONLY WHEN DONE BY THE LEFT. NO EXCEPTIONS MADE.

I sure hope it isn’t a mistake to post this on a Sunday. I think lots of ppl should read it. It’s short and tells an important story, as if any more proof were needed
with regard to the way the planet saving gweens apply pressure to any who don’t agree.  But then, ppl who cave in to their pressure are as much part of this problem. 

by Christopher Booker
The Sunday Telegraph. London

Warmists beat straying BBC man back into line

A talking point among “climate sceptics” on both sides of the Atlantic has been the bizarre tale of how the BBC’s chief reporter on climate change censored an item on the BBC website after being harried by a “climate activist”.

On April 4 Roger Harrabin posted a story on the fact that world temperatures have not continued to rise in the past 10 years, and this year will fall to a level markedly below the average of the past two decades.

Citing the World Meteorological Organisation, Mr Harrabin accurately reported that “global temperatures have not risen since 1998, prompting some to question climate change theory”.

This was a red rag to Jo Abbess of the Campaign Against Climate Change (Hon President, George Monbiot), who emailed Mr Harrabin demanding that he “correct” his item.

Mr Harrabin insisted that what he had written was true. There are indeed eminent climate scientists “who question whether warming will continue as predicted”.

This only angered Ms Abbess further. She said it was “highly irresponsible to play into the hands of the sceptics”, to “even hint that the Earth is cooling down again”.

Mr Harrabin, though he has led the BBC’s tireless promotion of warmist orthodoxy, stood firm. Even in the “general media”, he replied, “sceptics” highlight the lack of increase since 1998: to ignore this might give the impression that “debate is being censored”.

His item had, after all, added “we are still in a long-term warming trend”.

This was too much for Ms Abbess. She responded that this was not “a matter of debate”. He should not be quoting the sceptics ”whose voice is heard everywhere, on every channel, deliberately obstructing the emergence of the truth”.

Unless he changed his item, she said, “I would have to conclude that you are insufficiently educated to be able to know when you have been psychologically manipulated”. She threatened to expose him by spreading his replies across the internet.

At this point the BBC’s man caved in. Within minutes a new version appeared, given the same time and date as that which he had consigned to Winston Smith’s memory hole.

Out went any mention of “sceptics” who question global warming. After a guarded reference to this year’s “slightly cooler” temperatures, a new paragraph said that they would “still be above the average” and that we will “soon exceed the record year of 1998 because of the global warming induced by greenhouse gases”.

Of course we have long known where the BBC stands on climate change. But it is good to have such clear evidence that, even when one of its reporters tries to be honest, he can be whipped back into line by a pressure group.

In the end, Ms Abbess still circulated the exchanges on the internet, to show the great victory she had won for the “emerging truth”.

http://tinyurl.com/53jcm3 Then scroll down short way.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/13/2008 at 08:16 AM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather •  
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   Saturday - April 12, 2008

HELL WEEK IS ALSO PULLING YOUR OWN TEETH

This story is from, The Hampshire Chronical, Winchester, Englandhttp://tinyurl.com/4s54h6

Gran performs own dentistry
IN agony for days and without a dentist willing to see her, Elizabeth Green felt she had no choice but to pull out her own teeth.

The Winchester grandmother was in such pain with the two front teeth she wiggled them back and forth for several hours with her fingers until they came away.

The 76-year-old widow has spoken of her anger at being forced to become a do-it-yourself dentist due to the lack of NHS dental care in her area.

Mrs Green, a retired chef, of Westman Road, Weeke, said: “The teeth had became loose and very painful. I used Yellow Pages to ring around Winchester dentists, but they all said sorry, we are not taking any new NHS patients’.

“I explained I was in pain and all they said was take painkillers’. The teeth got more painful, and I couldn’t take it any longer. I moved the teeth back and forwards, and twisted them and pulled them out.

“I feel angry. I worked all my life and paid taxes and then when I want something I can’t get it.

“It’s terrible. It’s like something from the past. When I was growing up in Germany my mother would put string around our teeth and say look away’ and pull them out.”

She said throughout her life she had always looked after her teeth, but never been registered with a dentist because of the cost and because she felt there was no need.

“I do regret it, but I needed the money,” she said.

“I was always in debt and never had much to live on,” said the mother-of-five and grandmother of 11.

Helen Clanchy, area director of commissioning (primary care) for Hampshire PCT, said: “We are very concerned to hear that this patient felt they had no option left but to take this drastic action.

“Hampshire PCT has a dental helpline that is able to offer patients who are unable or have chosen not to register with a NHS dentist, same day appointments for emergency treatment.

“Members of the public who use this service would need to pay the usual charges unless they are entitled to free NHS dental treatment.”

Mrs Green has since taken her plight to Martin Tod, prospective Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Winchester, who has now arranged for her to join a waiting list of a dentist in Andover.

Mr Tod said: “It’s a shocking story, an indictment of the current situation.

“We’ve now reached the point where a pensioner felt forced to pull out two of her own teeth because they can’t get access to a local NHS dentist.

“It’s appalling and it’s a health timebomb. We’re laying down major problems for the future.”

Mr Tod added that a more flexible dental contract was needed to encourage dentists back into the NHS, and urged local primary care trusts to take urgent action.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/12/2008 at 04:31 PM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine •  
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Tax Time

This is Hell Weekend for a lot of Americans. It’s time to finally face the inevitable and do your taxes. April 15th is Tuesday, and the check has to be in the mail by then.

Some of you have been smart, and have been spending a little time doing them for a month or so now. Others, the few and lucky, who will be getting back a tiny bit of what they’ve paid in, got to work back in January and may have even received their refund checks by now. But tens of millions of us were at Walmart early this morning looking for a copy of TurboTax, or lining up outside H&R Block with a suitcase full of papers and receipts.

My taxes weren’t hard. I’m living close to the poverty line right now, but I’m not on any kind of public assistance whatsoever. And even with my pathetic income, I still had to pay a little bit more to the state and the feds than what had been withheld.

So for those millions who are tying themselves in knots this glorious spring weekend, trying to figure out the cost basis for some damn partial share that was automatically sold because some company they owned a few shares of stock in was bought out by some other company they might have owned a few shares of, my hat’s off to you. I feel your pain, because I’ve been through this myself in the past. Heh, I remember one year when I was in college I had to send in something like twenty forms. I’d worked more than a dozen jobs that year in several states, and the paperwork was amazing.

Many people will have a wake up call today and realize that the Fair Tax would solve so much of this pain. So would some kind of Flat Tax. Other folks just feel a real sense of resentment right now when they realize just how much of their tax money goes to support the lazy and shiftless - and that means people on the dole and the infinite morass of the ever expanding jobs program that is government. If you’re one of them, and find yourself snapping pencils in anger, take heart: Rachel Lucas wrote a great Tax Rant you can read and adopt as your own. I’d give you some excerpts, except that Rachel is in full swing, and it’s hard to find two lines that don’t contain swearing. Go Read. 

Posted by Drew458     on 04/12/2008 at 03:43 PM   
Filed Under: • Government • Corruption and Greed • Taxes •  
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A PRO CHINA POST:  Western media has demonised China

Western media has demonised China

I found this very interesting and had a thought or two and thought hard before posting it.  He makes his points, that’s his job after all. 
Now then, many won’t agree but then I don’t wanna play the lib. game on this issue.
And btw ... why should I believe the msm on this issue, any more then I should take their word on other things political?

Like some of you I really don’t care at all about the olympics.  They aren’t amateur anymore and haven’t been for a long time.
But I think China is such an easy target, right or wrong.
Why aren’t these protesters here in the UK shouting madly about the overly violent street crimes that make life hell?
Where are the protests over a serial rapist escaping custody, again, because the ppl holding the bastard used pc language so as to not “offend” him, and setting up his escape because they refused to say what he was.
Answer. Because China is an easier target!  Why not protest the murder of a man by a 13 year old who then threw his body on a bonfire, who will be eligible for possible parole in 13 years?
Because China is an easier target and who cares about the human rights of crime victims anyway.  Oh ... but lets all worry about Tibet and tell the Chinese how to run things in their back yard.  Forgetting our own back garden is polluted beyond belief.

Chinese ambassador Fu Ying: Western media has demonised China By Fu Ying
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 12/04/2008

In the morning of April 6, looking at the snowflakes falling outside the window, I could not but wonder what the torch relay would be like.

About 8 hours later, when the torch finally struggled through the route, Olympic gold medalist Dame Kelly Holmes ran up to light the Olympic cauldron at the O2 dome, and 4,000 spectators cheered, obviously with a sense of relief.

This day will be remembered, as Beijing met London with splashes and sparkles. It was an encounter between China, the first developing country to host the Olympics, and Britain, the first western country to greet the 2008 torch.

On the bus to the airport, I was with some young girls from the Beijing team, including an Olympic gold medalist, Miss Qiao.

They were convinced that the people here were against them. One girl remarked she couldn’t believe this land nourished Shakespeare and Dickens.

Another asked: where is the “gentlemenship”? I used all my knowledge to argue for London, and looking into their watery eyes, I knew I was not succeeding. I can’t blame them.

They were running between vehicles for the whole day, noses red and hands cold, trying to service the torch bearers.

They had only about three hours of sleep the previous night and some were having lunch sandwiches just now.

Worse still, they had to endure repeated violent attacks on the torch throughout the relay. I was fortunate to sit at the rear of the bus and saw smiling faces of Londoners who came out in the tens of thousands, old people waving and young performers dancing, braving the cold weather.

In the darkness of a London night, waving the chartered plane goodbye, I had a feeling the plane was heavier than when it landed. The torch will carry on, and the journey will educate the more than a billion Chinese people about the world, and the world about China.

A young friend in China wrote to me after watching the event on the BBC: “I felt so many things all at once – sadness, anger and confusion.” It must have dawned on many like him that simply a sincere heart was not enough to ensure China’s smooth integration with the world.

The wall that stands in China’s way to the world is thick. In China, what’s hot at this moment on the internet, which has 200 million users there, is not only the attempts to snatch the torch but also some moving images of Jin Jing, a slim young girl, a Paralympic athlete in a wheelchair, helped by a blind athlete. She held the torch with both arms to her chest as violent “protesters” tried repeatedly to grab it from her during the Paris relay.

There is especially infuriated criticism of some of the misreporting of China in recent weeks, such as crafting photos or even using photos from other countries to prove a crackdown. On the other side of the wall, the story is different.

Standing in the middle, I am concerned that mutual perceptions between the people of China and the West are quickly drifting in opposite directions. I cannot help asking why, when it comes to China, the generalised accusations can easily be accepted without people questioning what exactly and specifically they mean; why any story or figures can stay on the news for days without factual support.

Even my own participation in the torch relay had been the subject of continuous speculation. I remember a local friend said, “We all like to read media stories. Only when it comes to ourselves do we know they can’t all be true.”

Of those who protested loudly, many probably have not seen Tibet. For the Chinese people, Tibet is a loved land and information about it is ample. Four million tourists visit Tibet every year. The past five years saw the income of farmers and herdsmen increasing by 83.3 per cent. In 2006 there were more than 1,000 schools, with 500,000 students.

In this Autonomous Region, where 92 per cent of the population is Tibetan, there are 1,780 temples, or one for every 1,600 people – which is more than in England, where there is one church for every 3,125 people.

There may be complicated problems of religion mixing with politics, but people are well-fed, well-clothed and well-housed. That has been the main objective of China for centuries. Tibet may not grow into an industrial place like the eastern cities in China, but it will move on like other parts of China.

I personally experienced China’s transition to opening up, from small steps to bigger strides. I remain a consistent and firm supporter of opening up. The latest events have led the younger generation of Chinese, those born since the 1980s, who grew up in a more prosperous, better-educated and freer China, to begin a collective rethinking about the West.

My daughter, who loves Western culture, must have used the word “why” dozens of times in our long online chat. Her frustration could be felt between the lines. Many who had romantic views about the West are very disappointed at the media’s attempt to demonise China.

We all know demonisation feeds a counter-reaction. I do pray from the bottom of my heart that the younger generation of Chinese will not be totally disillusioned about the West, which remains an important partner in our ongoing reform.

Many complain about China not allowing enough access to the media. In China, the view is that the Western media needs to make an effort to earn respect. Coming to China to report bad stories may not be welcomed but would not be stopped, as China is committed to opening up.

China is far from perfect and it is trying to address the many problems that do exist. It would be helpful to the credibility of the Western media if the issues they care and write about are of today’s China, not of the long-gone past.

In my one year in the UK, I have realized that there is a lot more media coverage about China than when I was a student here in the mid-1980s, and most of it is quite close to the real life of China, good or bad.

China is also in an era of information explosion. I am sure that more and more people in the West will be able to cross the language and cultural barriers and find out more about the real China. The world has waited for China to join it. Now China has to have the patience to wait for the world to understand China.

Fu Ying is the Chinese Ambassador to London

http://tinyurl.com/62nch4

Posted by Drew458     on 04/12/2008 at 10:49 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Only ‘retards’ would vote for Italy’s Left:  Gotta Like This Guy.

Ok, not my usual area of interest and posting but couldn’t resist this one.
Maybe it’ll take the place of my usual wkend humor post.  Read two papers today and couldn’t really find much if anything funny.

Silvo Berlusconi: Only ‘retards’ would vote for Italy’s LeftBy Malcolm Moore in Milan
Last Updated: 7:04pm BST 11/04/2008

Silvio Berlusconi has said only “retards” will vote for his rivals in Italy’s general election.

“I do not believe that Italians could be retarded enough to fall into a trap like this,” said the media magnate in his final rally in front of the Colosseum.

Silvio Berlusconi claimed footballer Francesco Totti ‘had nothing between the ears’
Mr Berlusconi used the word “grullo”, a grave insult in Florentine dialect.

The phrase recalled his use of the word “coglione”, or testicle, to describe opposition supporters at the last election in 2006.

However, the perma-tanned billionaire committed one gaffe too many when he went on to insult Italy’s iconic football player, Francesco Totti.

Upon hearing that Mr Totti was supporting his rivals, he shrugged: “Those with nothing between their ears have nothing between their ears.”

Mr Totti has repeatedly been lampooned in Italy for being ignorant. The footballer’s legions of fans rapidly forced Mr Berlusconi into an apology.

Even Giulio Andreotti, Italy’s former prime minister, joined the fray, accusing Mr Berlusconi of being “offside”.

Mr Berlusconi grovelled: “I am sorry. I love Totti. He’s a good boy. He’s obviously been manipulated by the Left-wing. His wife works [as a television presenter] for me.”

In the 2001 elections, Mr Berlusconi won support when he promised that there would be “meno tasse per tutti [less tax for all]” and particularly “meno tasse per Totti”.

Meanwhile, his main rival, Walter Veltroni, blasted Mr Berlusconi as a man from a different era.

“I hear this talk about Stalinism, about taking up arms or revolution and I think: What planet are we on? What year are we in?” he said, to 100,000 cheering supporters in Milan.

Mr Veltroni promised that he would sweep through Italy’s outdated and “encrusted” political and business worlds and be a “force for change” similar to Tony Blair.

While Mr Berlusconi has relaxed in anticipation of an easy victory, Mr Veltroni closed his campaign with speeches in each of Italy’s four major cities - Naples, Bologna, Milan and Rome.

Speaking for over an hour without notes, Mr Veltroni energised the crowd in Milan by comparing Italian life to a dream in which one cannot race ahead because one’s legs are heavy.

He has vowed to remove 500 “pointless” laws in order to ease the bureaucratic burden.

Mr Veltroni’s supporters compared the election campaign to a Formula One race.

“We started at the back of the grid, but we are now on the final curve, neck and neck with our rival,” said Matteo Colanino, a Democratic Party candidate in the city.

“It could be the greatest political comeback in modern times,” he added.

Mr Veltroni’s strategists said their desire to run a “soft” campaign, without insults or bickering, had paid off handsomely.

“We are very very close,” said one aide, without clarifying what their surveys showed.

Polls have been banned in the later stages of the campaign, but Mr Berlusconi held a nine-point lead two weeks ago.

“Berlusconi is nervous now,” said Mr Veltroni. “He knows that all the indications show that the match is now wide open, while a few months ago he had it sewn up,” he said.

Mr Berlusconi has suggested Mr Veltroni will try to rig the election, and as the first votes arrived today, from Italians living abroad, the home ministry insisted it would be “as transparent as a glass house”.

However, there were indications that 50,000 votes from Latin America had been tampered with, allegedly in collusion with the Piromalli clan, part of the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta mafia.

The home ministry said that Italian councils in Latin America had already been alerted and were watchful for any suspicious ballot papers.

There were allegations of vote-rigging at the last election, in 2006, which Romano Prodi won by just 24,000 votes.

http://tinyurl.com/3vh7br

Posted by Drew458     on 04/12/2008 at 10:27 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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9/11 with naked cast in Mickey Mouse masks

These folks are way beyond decedent. I just can not begin to imagine what the hell is in their collective sicko minds.
I can’t even post all the photos you’ll find on the link below. And I wouldn’t want to.  But never mind the pix… it’s the thought behind this crap. And you will not like the use of our flag, USA, so be warned.  I may have seen it used worse in the past, but this is still bothersome.

German staging of Verdi’s A Masked Ball on 9/11 with naked cast in Mickey Mouse masks

By Harry de Quetteville in Berlin
Last Updated: 9:35pm BST 11/04/2008

A German opera house is to unveil a provocative new production staged in the ruins of New York’s World Trade Centre.

It features naked pensioners and Mickey Mouse masks, Hitler salutes and Elvis impersonators.

The self-consciously outrageous September 11th staging of Verdi’s ‘A Masked Ball’ has been dreamed up by Austrian director Johann Kresnik.

He has described the concoction as a populist critique of modern American society, aimed at showing up the disparities between rich and poor, which attracting a large audience.

“It will be a different, a provocative masked ball on the ruins of the World Trade Centre,” he told reporters before Saturday’s premiere. “The naked stand for people without means, the victims of capitalism, the underclass, who don’t have anything anymore.”

Rehearsals suggest that Mr Kresnik’s anti-capitalist staging is unlikely to be celebrated for its subtlety.

Some of the cast are dressed in soldiers uniforms, or in the red white and blue of Uncle Sam, or in day-glow pink Elvis costumes, slashed to the waist. Many, however, appear to spend their time on stage not wearing anything at all.

They include dozens local pensioners, recruited by the opera house in Erfurt, eastern Germany, to appear naked wearing nothing but plastic Mickey Mouse masks.

“It’s a very beautiful, poetic scene,” said Guy Montavon, the theatre’s general manager.

Mr. Montavon is a tasteless idiot who belongs in a straight jacket along with that Kresnik jerk.

He said that 60 eager amateurs were keen to appear naked before an audience for the premiere, but only 35 made the final cut.

Right. 60 eager self delusional exhibitionists of no talent and god awful bodies any self respecting person would go to extremes to hide. But then ...ya know, Berlin has a long history of decadence. Nothin’ new here I guess.

The staging deliberately toys with images that are extremely sensitive both in the US and Germany.

Foreign audiences may find naked singers cavorting in front of the iconic ruined mesh of World Trade Centre metalwork most provocative.

In Germany however, a female singer with a painted on toothbrush moustache performing a straight arm Nazi salute appears particularly conceived to outrage.

The obvious ostentation of the production prompted one local politician to call for locals to boycott the performances.

But that call has been completely ignored.

Indeed, though the production looks unlikely to win many prizes for the nuance of its message, Mr Kresnik has succeeded in his other aim, selling out the Erfurt opera house for the premiere.

Only a handful of tickets are available for subsequent performances later this month.

“One has to introduce new elements,” he said. “Otherwise it is difficult to attract new theatregoers.”

http://tinyurl.com/3trj99

Posted by Drew458     on 04/12/2008 at 09:53 AM   
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Does private morality effect public job performance?

"It’s a private matter.”

“It doesn’t effect his job.”

Once again, a liberal Democrat was caught with his . . . appendage. . . where it didn’t belong. Eliot Spitzer resigned the governorship of New York for patronizing a prostitute. Predictably, the liberals have circled the wagons to defend Spitzer’s behavior. I intend to show that their arguments don’t hold water.

Argument #1: “It’s a private matter.”

Sounds good doesn’t it? Except for one thing: Spitzer is a married man. At the very least, one other person is now involved, his wife. Not very private. But that’s not all…

The Spitzers are married. Is THAT private? NO.

To get married, you exchange vows in front of the following:

1. A representative of the State.
2. A representative of your church. (#1 and #2 could be the same person)
3. At least two witnesses. (usually the ‘best man’ and the ‘maid of honor’)
4. friends, family, etc.

Marriage is not a ‘private’ matter. You cannot get married privately.

I go further:

During the marriage ceremony, Gov. Spitzer and his wife exchanged vows. For the sake of argument, I’m going to assume their vows were similar to the ones I gave to my wife.

The vows my wife and I exchanged included:

I promise to love, honor, and cherish…

Despite my strongest encouragement, my wife would NOT promise to obey me as is traditional. (sigh)

But it gets worse. My vows, and I’m assuming that Eliot Spitzer’s, also included a phrase like:

cleave to one another and forsake all others…

I don’t know the exact wording, but my vows were very like this. Discriminatory vows. Perhaps Eliot didn’t want to ‘discriminate’ against all those 22 yr old hookers…

So, Eliot Spitzer, as a married man, took an oath (marriage vows) and then broke them. We now know his word is worthless.

Next, this liar is sworn in as Governor of New York. Remember, the libs say that visiting a prostitute doesn’t effect how he does his job… His personal vice will not show up in his public administration.

First, he was sworn in as Governor. I’m certain that the oath he took included a phrase similar to the following: “I will uphold and enforce the laws of the State of New York.” And as Governor, having taken an oath to uphold and enforce the laws of the State of New York, Spitzer turned right around and broke said laws. I lived in New York in 1982 and prostitution was illegal then. I’ve not heard that New York legalized prostitution since then.

The investigation has shown that Spitzer has been patronizing hookers for years. Which begs the question: As Attorney General, who was going around shutting down brothels, how did he decide which brothel to shut down? Did they not give him enough of a discount? I assume he didn’t pursue the brothels he patronized.

Don’t try to tell me that private vice doesn’t effect public duty.

Posted by Christopher     on 04/12/2008 at 12:15 AM   
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   Friday - April 11, 2008

Random thoughts

Why the IOC ever awarded China with the Olympics is beyond me. China just doesn’t deserve to be recognized like that. China ranks right up there with Iran, North Korea, and Libya for human rights violators. I’ve followed with great amusement the perils of the Olympic torch on its journey, especially through that liberal bastion Sodomcisco. Mayor Newsom had to change the route of the torch to assuage Chinese sensibilities over Tibet. Mayor Newsom is more concerned about Communist China’s feelings over the feelings of actual Americans. Remember, this is the @sshole that decided all on his lonesome to issue ‘marriage’ certificates for sodomites.

Having rehashed all of that, I’d like to state that I don’t really care about the Olympics anymore. They’ve been tainted since 1992. That was the year that the Olympics were translated from being at least ostensibly ‘amateur’ to being ‘professional’. The US ‘Dream Team’ in basketball may indeed go down in history as the greatest basketball team ever assembled, but in the context of the Olympics? Sorry, I’m not impressed with their results over amateur competition.

What did impress me?

I’m thinking the US hockey team victory in 1980 at Lake Placid.

William F. Buckley, Jr passed away a couple of weeks ago. One of my favorite Buckley quotes:

Our principle afflictions are the result of ideology backed by the power of government. It takes government to translate individual vices into universal afflictions. It was government that translated Mein Kampf into concentration camps.

On marriage:

In “Tall Trees in Georgia,” the late Eva Cassidy laments having chosen independence ahead of love with these words:

The sweetest love I ever had / I left aside
Because I did not want to be / any man’s bride

Now older, alone and pining to be married, she advises:

Control your mind my girl / and give your heart to one
For if you love all men / you’ll surely be left with none

From this brief, poignant account, we catch a glimpse of the near universal yearnings of the heart for a life’s mate - not merely a fleeting desire for some half-committed “significant other.”

Source article

Posted by Christopher     on 04/11/2008 at 11:27 PM   
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America’s Most Appropriately Named Mayor

Mayor Nutter likened himself and City Council members yesterday to the band of rebels who formed this country as he signed five new gun-control laws that defy the state legislature and legal precedent.

“Almost 232 years ago, a group of concerned Americans took matters in their own hands and did what they needed to do by declaring that the time had come for a change,” Nutter said as he signed the bills in front of a table of confiscated weapons outside the police evidence room in City Hall.

“We are going to make ourselves independent of the violence that’s been taking place in this city for far too long,” he said.

The five laws - called everything from unconstitutional to criminal by critics - do the following:

• Limit handgun purchases to one a month.
• Require lost or stolen firearms to be reported to police within 24 hours.
• Prohibit individuals under protection-from-abuse orders from possessing guns if ordered by the court.
• Allow removal of firearms from “persons posing a risk of imminent personal injury” to themselves or others.
• Outlaw the possession and sale of certain assault weapons.

Nutter said he would begin to enforce the laws immediately, with the exception of the one-gun-a-month requirement, which takes effect in six months.

Nutter embraced the idea of taking “direct action” to challenge a legal status quo to protect city residents.

“If we all sat around bemoaning what the law was on a regular basis,” Nutter said. “I’d probably still be picking cotton somewhere as opposed to being mayor of the city of Philadelphia.”

The city has tried and failed for three decades to buck the 1974 state law that reserves gun regulation to the state legislature. The state’s preeminence appeared to be cemented in a 1996 Supreme Court ruling that allowed the legislature to prevent Philadelphia and Pittsburgh from enacting local gun laws.

Words just fail me here.

Ok, first up ... the “pickin cotton” BS?  X’Scooose me, but that ought to get you a smack upside yo nappy haid. Are you implying that you personally had to break laws to become the mayor, or are you implying that you used to do slave labor before entering politics, or what? We don’t cotton to that cotton pickin line about cotton pickin round here, so just what is up with that?

And yes, Philly is a hole. A dirty, grungy, crime and violence infested hole. So is Camden, right across the bridge in NJ. Two of the worst cities on the east coast. Wall to wall ghetto, with gangs everywhere. So crime control, gang control, drug control, and effective youth programs might be what’s needed. What isn’t needed is yet another expensive, empty gesture that you know damn well isn’t going to survive a cotton pickin minute in court. Because you don’t have the right to make such laws, and have been told so by the state and by the US Supreme Court for over 30 years. And if it isn’t a crime of some kind to sign a law that you know full well you have no business signing, then it ought to be. But even if it weren’t, what Nutter has done here is so deliberately stupid he ought to be fired. What a friggin idiot.

Even if Da Mayah had the power to make special gun laws for his shitty little city ...

The first law is restraint of legal trade

The second law makes criminals out of law abiding citizens who don’t count their guns every single day

The third law is just inane; it makes no sense - either it keeps people who are being threatened from getting a gun, or it duplicates the “Lautenberg Amendment” on restraining orders, which already
takes away the 2nd Amendment rights of the people who have been served with a restraining order. One way is stupid, the other way is already in place. What a waste of ink.

The fourth law ... just what the hell is that supposed to mean? “Look out Jim - that guy is frowning. I think he’s ready to injure someone. Get his guns quick!”

The fifth - “certain assault weapons”?? WTF? Which ones, and why them? Naturally I don’t expect these to be REAL assault weapons, since those are already covered by laws dating back to ... arrggh, I think I’ve blown a blood vessel. The level of willful stupidity here is just too much to bear.

Liberals. Are they the ones buying those “NO means YES” T-shirts at Cafe Press and thinking it’s a slogan about legal precedents? What a utter bonehead this guy is. What a NUTTER.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/11/2008 at 09:53 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Politics • Stoopid-People •  
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The Anti-Atkins Diet

A diet of baked beans helped Neil King to lose 140 pounds in nine months. In fact, since June 2007, he’s eaten more than half a ton of them, about 1,500 cans.

Prior to dieting, King ate a full English breakfast, which at its heart consists of bacon and eggs and may include sausage, toast, and stewed tomatoes, for lunch, and drank eight pints of lager in the pub after tea.

King, from Halstead in Essex, England, made the switch from boozing to beans after being told he was at risk for bowel cancer.

And his high fiber diet has been gas-free since he stopped having toast with his beans, it is reported. The diet helped King go from 420 pounds to 280 pounds.

Speaking to Britain’s Mirror, King said, “Some people think I’m mad but I love the taste and the weight has been dropping off.”

King apparently eats six cans of beans each day, and has them with rice for lunch and with potato for his afternoon tea.

Wow. Carbs, carbs, and more carbs. I’d think he was was hardly anything but carbs. But I’d be wrong. If this nutrition lable I found is accurate, 6 cans worth comes out to less than 1000 calories a day, with lots of fiber and a good amount of protien. So I guess it is possible. And I’m certain that his colon was all clean and shiny.

I like this part the best

… has been gas-free since he stopped having toast

yeah, that’s right. It was the toast that was giving him wind.

Gosh, this is such a tabloid post. I guess I’m in a gossipy mood tonight. What the hell, it’s Friday.

Others agree. Beans, bean, good for your heart ... And I would guess the Mr. King now qualifies as a vegetarian. Maybe I should give this a try. But beans, nothing but beans, for most of a year? Isn’t this one of those tortures that John McCain is always going on about?

Posted by Drew458     on 04/11/2008 at 08:56 PM   
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Gossip Blogging?

How often does a regular blog like this get to steal a march on the gossip blogs? About ... almost never. And by “stealing a march” I mean taking the opportunity to link to something and post some snarky comment about some actress or singer. So ...

With just a click of a mouse, the image of a healthy, shiny face transforms into a skeletal portrait — a toothless grin surrounded by scabbed skin and a gray complexion.

This is FacesofMeth.us, a Web site that shows the brutal effects of what methamphetamine does to people. Its goal is simple: Use real life images to educate kids about the dangers of methamphetamine.
The site is the brainchild of Multnomah County Sheriff’s Deputy Bret King, who came up with the idea while booking inmates into the Multnomah County Jail in Portland, Oregon. King, who collected the pictures of meth addicts, noticed how repeated abusers’ physical appearances had changed horribly.

Methamphetamine — a highly addictive concoction made from such noxious ingredients as lithium batteries and farm fertilizer supplies — is one of the most widely abused controlled substances in Oregon. It’s cheap, it’s easy to buy and it packs a bigger punch than cocaine.

(columnist) Rushkoff said that while the changes in appearance of meth users are horrifying, people are attracted to them because they’re of the addicts’ own making.

“This is reality TV to the extreme,” he said.

What, no pictures of Fergie or Wino?

There ya go. Gossip Snark. I beat them at their own game. I feel so much better now. These sites call these two women “meth face” on a daily basis. And they both have had drug issues in the past. Darn shame too, because I think both of them can be really attractive. Or used to be really attractive. Before the drugs and stuff. You know what I mean.

But getting back to blogreality ... This does rather remind me of the “Scared Straight” displays we used to see when I was a kid. Do they still do that one? I remember one was a display of a jailhouse, built into a mobile home. They’d drive the thing up in front of a school or a mall, and you could walk through and see all sorts of horrible pictures of prison life and prisioners, and there was an actual jailcell bars and all. And an electric chair and an assortment of shivs. Pretty strange. But hey, it was the 60s.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/11/2008 at 04:18 PM   
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I sent an email

One email is a lonely thing.

Dear Cafe Press

Thank you for having someone go through your designs and deleting some of the pro-rape designs. Too bad you still have a rape-humor category. I hope that one gets cleaned out as well.

There is nothing funny about rape. Any designs you carry that imply such humor, or imply rape in any positive way, such as your “No means Yes” design, your “You can’t rape the willing” design, or your “Chloroform. It’s my move” design, should be removed.

I know that most of the designs are submitted by people who don’t work for Cafe Press. And I know that when you have tens of thousands of designs it gets hard to keep track of them. And I do consider myself to have a very broad sense of humor ... but these design cross the line from humor to psychosis. Please continue cleaning up this area.

I like Cafe Press, and I buy things from you once in a while, and I don’t want to see your business get a bad name. To that end I think you should continue acting in a socially responsible way. Just do it a bit faster.

Thank you.

To be fair, Cafe Press has deleted several of these designs. But the category has over 16,000 designs. And while some of the designs are gone, their thumbnails still remain. I am not pulling one of those Leftist “I don’t like what they say so let’s burn down the printshop” suppressions of free speech. But I am saying that sometimes a business needs a little reminder now and again to Do The Right Thing.

h/t to Safer Campus and to In Jennifer’s Head. And I’m pretty sure I got there from a commenter atRachel Lucas. And it’s out at The Lizard Queen and The Curvature. Blogswarm !!

Posted by Drew458     on 04/11/2008 at 02:15 PM   
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