BMEWS
 
Sarah Palin's presence in the lower 48 means the Arctic ice cap can finally return.

calendar   Sunday - November 02, 2008

No Thanks

I want no part of the rift between LGF, GoV, and JihadWatch. I think it’s all pretty stupid. I haven’t spent more than a few minutes reading about this Belgian Vlaam Belang group, so I don’t know, or even care, if they are or are not a pro-white, white supremecist, or fascist organization. They’re in Belgium, for crying out loud, the only place on earth to have all of the faults of the fwench and none of the benefits. It simply does not interest me.

I think it’s a shame though that these 3 conservative blogs can’t get along. LGF (Little Green Footballs, for the acronymically challenged) and GoV (Gates of Vienna) are both excellent blogs with their own very large and very vocal group of members. If the comment threads here were even 1% as long as those there, we’d have the biggest discussion we’ve ever had. JihadWatch is another excellent blog, keeping us abreast of all the allayousnackbar bits that don’t ever make the news. Robert Spencer runs the place, and I buy and read his books. I think he’s one damn smart cookie, and his observations and insights are nearly priceless.

It’s a shame they can’t get along, but I will let them work it out themselves. And if Charles at LGF feels a need to put his foot down and ban everyone and everything associated with those other two blogs, that’s his right. It’s his blog. I don’t agree with that action, but to be frank I have not followed the Vlaams story hardly at all. Maybe this was necessary. Maybe he’s pitching a fit. Maybe I don’t really care, and I can drop by any of these blogs to get caught up with everything else, and then leave.





Posted by Drew458   United States  on 11/02/2008 at 06:57 PM    avatar
Blog StuffTrackbacks (0) • Permalink

Councils ban ‘elitist’ and ‘discriminatory’ Latin phrases. (ok BMEWSers. Outdumb this one)

What are these folks thinking?  They want “wordier” documents? 
batbatbatbat

Councils ban ‘elitist’ and ‘discriminatory’ Latin phrases
They are phrases that are repeated ad nauseam and are taken as bona fide English, but councils have now overturned the status quo by banning staff from using Latin terms, which they claim are elitist and discriminatory.

By Chris Hastings, Public Affairs Editor
Last Updated: 12:35AM GMT 02 Nov 2008

Local authorities have ordered employees to stop using the words and phrases on documents and when communicating with members of the public and to rely on wordier alternatives instead.


The ban has infuriated classical scholars who say it is diluting the world’s richest language and is the “linguistic equivalent of ethnic cleansing”.

Bournemouth Council, which has the Latin motto Pulchritudo et Salubritas, meaning beauty and health, has listed 19 terms it no longer considers acceptable for use.

This includes bona fide, eg (exempli gratia), prima facie, ad lib or ad libitum, etc or et cetera, ie or id est, inter alia, NB or nota bene, per, per se, pro rata, quid pro quo, vis-a-vis, vice versa and even via.

Its list of more verbose alternatives, includes “for this special purpose”, in place of ad hoc and “existing condition” or “state of things”, instead of status quo.

In instructions to staff, the council said: “Not everyone knows Latin. Many readers do not have English as their first language so using Latin can be particularly difficult.”

The details of banned words have emerged in documents obtained from councils by the Sunday Telegraph under The Freedom of Information Act.

Of other local authorities to prohibit the use of Latin, Salisbury Council has asked staff to avoid the phrases ad hoc, ergo and QED (quod erat demonstrandum), while Fife Council has also banned ad hoc as well as ex officio.

Professor Mary Beard, a professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge said: “This is absolute bonkers and the linguistic equivalent of ethnic cleansing. English is and always has been a language full of foreign words. It has never been an ethnically pure language.”

Dr Peter Jones, co-founder of the charity Friends of Classics said “This sort of thing sends out the message that language is about nothing more than the communication of very basic information in the manner of a railway timetable.

“But it is about much more than that. The great strength of English is that it has a massive infusion of Latin. We have a very rich lexicon with almost two sets of words for everything.

“To try and wipe out the richness does a great disservice to the language. It demeans it. I am all for immigrants raising their sights not lowering them. Plain English and Latin phrasing are not diametrically opposed concepts.”

Henry Mount the author of the bestselling book Amo, Amos, Amat and All That, a lighthearted guide to the language, said: “Latin words and phrases can often sum up thoughts and ideas more often that the alternatives which are put forward. They are tremendously useful, quicker and nicer sounding.

“They are also English words. You will find etc or et cetera in an English dictionary complete with its explanation.”

However, the Plain English Campaign has congratulated the councils for introducing the bans.

Marie Clair, its spokesman, said: “If you look at the diversity of all our communities you have got people for whom English is a second language. They might mistake eg for egg and little things like that can confuse people.

“At the same time it is important to remember that the national literacy level is about 12 years old and the vast majority of people hardly ever use these terms.”


(well hells bells. lets be sure ya don’t screw up and raise the level any.  ah, anyone know how to say that in Latin?)

“It is far better to use words people understand. Often people in power are using the words because they want to feel self important. It is not right that voters should suffer because of some official’s ego.”

Several councils, including Aberdeenshire, and Blackburn and Darwen, have also prohibited the use of the French phrase in lieu, while many local authorities have drawn up lists of English words, which cannot be used as they are considered politically incorrect.

Amber Valley Council, in Derbyshire, has told staff it is no longer acceptable to use language “that portrays once sex as subordinate to the other”.

Staff have been instructed to say “synthetic” rather than “man made”, “lay person” instead of “lay man”, “people in general” in place of “man in the street”, “one person show” rather than “one man show” and “ancestors” instead of “forefathers”.

Broadland Council, in Norfolk, has banned “housewife” and replaced it with “homemaker” and asked staff to refer to “staffing” rather than “manning” levels.

Several councils including Blyth Valley and Weymouth have banned the phrase disabled toilet and disabled parking because they imply that the facilities themselves are disabled. They have renamed them accessible.

http://tinyurl.com/5jcvag

I’ll tell what needs banning.  Authors who find the urgent need to write lines in books in foreign languages without translations.  They always assume that everybody has their superior education and just understands. Lots of time it isn’t possible to figure out what the line means.
But this anti Latin phrase thing is silly.  Besides, I love words like .... IPSO-FACTO.  I hear the Kingfish sayin’ that even now after all these years.
Yeah, I loined it from Amos N Andy on radio. Who needs skool when yiz have radio?

I just thought of something else.
I want to award a bat to Google Chrome for being so erratic.  Yeah it’s way faster then the Fox, but at least FireFox always works.
Goog has outclevered itself.
So this bats for you Goog. bat





Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 11/02/2008 at 12:20 PM    avatar
Stoopid-PeopleUKTrackbacks (0) • Permalink

Sounds fair to me!

From His Rottiness Emperor Misha I

Dear Fellow Business Owners,

As a business owner who employs 30 people, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barack Obama will be our next president, and that my taxes and fees will go up in a BIG way.

To compensate for these increases, I figure that the Customer will have to see an increase in my fees to them of about 8 to 10%. I will also have to lay off six of my employees. This really bothered me as I believe we are family here and didn’t know how to choose who will have to go. So, this is what I did.

I strolled thru the parking lot and found eight Obama bumper stickers on my employees’ cars. I have decided these folks will be the first to be laid off.

I can’t think of another fair way to approach this problem. If you have a better idea, let me know.

good_one





Posted by Christopher   United States  on 11/02/2008 at 12:02 PM    avatar
Taxeswork and the workplaceTrackbacks (0) • Permalink

America decides to fight and win in Afghanistan. (What? We weren’t interested earlier?)

This report today from the Sunday paper.  Kinda reads like maybe we weren’t trying before?

The comment re. the Russians sending 140,000 troops and still losing, ignores the fact that they were also fighting us.
That is, we were arming their enemies.

I confess I never quite understood just why we were supporting ppl opposing the Russians in that godforsaken place.  Except that their enemy was our friend sort of thing. Bah ... that’s one time we should have allied ourselves with the russkies as we did in WW2.  Or stayed out of it altogether and let the Russians finish the job.  If they could have.

You might say with some justification that I am not too terribly fond of that country or their people.  Maybe I shouldn’t think that way but it’s hard not to.

BTW ... is this being reported this way in the states?  Is it a story there at all?

Analysis: America decides to fight and win in Afghanistan
When British and American soldiers were called to Kabul’s Ministry of Culture last week, those who had served time in Iraq were greeted with a grimly familiar scene.

By Nick Meo
Last Updated: 11:31PM GMT 01 Nov 2008

Charred and mangled bodies littered the building, the victims of a suicide bomber who had penetrated security at one of the most heavily-guarded sites in the capital. A Taliban spokesman later gloatingly confirmed that the attack was aimed at the ministry’s Western advisers, part of a new strategy of terror against Kabul’s foreign aid community that saw British aid worker Gayle Williams shot dead two weeks ago.

It was a stark reminder of just how vicious the Taliban campaign in Afghanistan has become – and of the scale of the task facing the American general who has been ordered to claw back victory from the jaws of what is starting to look like defeat.

General David Petraeus, the ‘warrior-scholar’ credited with working a miracle in Iraq, is taking command of the war that America forgot. On Friday he started as head of US Central Command with orders to send more troops to Afghanistan, think up new tactics, and work out a strategy that, after years of muddle, bloodshed and drift under Nato’s confused command, will take the battle to the Taliban and win the war.

His old enemy appear to be planning their own surge; US intelligence believes that Arab jihadists have been arriving in the Pakistan borderlands as Iraq cools and Afghanistan hots up.

American commanders have barely bothered to disguise their growing frustration with their European and Nato allies whose war has been uncoordinated and inadequately resourced. Major military forces from Germany and France have avoided sending their troops to Taliban-dominated areas, while Holland and Canada, whose soldiers have seen ferocious fighting, will soon restrict their troops to training Afghans. It is clear from their actions that many of America’s allies increasingly believe that the war is unwinnable and not a place to put any more troops in harm’s way.

American commanders have looked at all the options in a thorough review and come to a different conclusion; they have decided that now is the time to fight.

“What will eventually win this war is American military power,” a senior Nato source in Kabul told the Sunday Telegraph. “There is no question of America withdrawing from Afghanistan. They are simply not prepared to let the people responsible for September 11th move back in.

“If the Europeans decided to go they wouldn’t that much missed, frankly. Some of them are in the way.”

Although the American military colossus is preparing to shoulder aside its European allies and escalate the war, the plan will almost certainly be very different from the successful strategy in Iraq, where a short-term but massive surge of troops proved instrumental in achieving a degree of peace.

General Petraeus has repeatedly stressed that the Afghan challenge is different. Indeed, some of his army rivals consider him more lucky than brilliant – he took command just as Sunnis had become sickened by the bloody excesses of al Qaeda in Iraq, and they were in a mood to strike deals with Americans.

In Afghanistan, although the Taliban is not popular, its support is growing. And with roughly only a third of the 150,000 troops he had at his disposal in Iraq, Gen Petraeus will simply not have enough manpower to flood the villages and mountains along the Pakistan border.

Instead, the Sunday Telegraph understands that American commanders will soon be presenting the new president in Washington, whoever he is, with plans to fight an intense five-year war against the guerrillas, a war that commanders think looks winnable unlike the morass troops are in now.

Britain will remain a key partner. But battles in Helmand will increasingly be fought by American combat troops and American commanders will call the shots. A serious effort will also be made, at last, to get a grip on the crippling problems of Kabul’s corrupt and ineffective government.

“President Karzai will be told bluntly that it is time for the Kabul government to change its ways.,” the NATO source added. “They will have to get rid of corrupt governors and police chiefs, introduce responsibility and generally improve their act and look like a government worth fighting for.”

President Karzai, who rarely leaves the gloomy confines of Kabul’s Arg Palace, is now said even by his own supporters to be exhausted. He still plans to stand in next year’s presidential elections, much to the dismay of most Westerners in Kabul and plenty of Afghans too.

The rot is so deep within his government that it is not clear how America or anyone else can force him to change, though, however much they may wish to.

The US is so fed up with corrupt and inefficient Afghan police and army forces that it is already considering arming village militias – a plan that sounds very similar to the Sunni Awakening programme that successfully energised Iraqis against al Qaeda.

Afghans fear that it could instead make petty warlords more powerful, and point to the fact that historically, every Western dalliance with warlords in Afghanistan has been a disaster: the Taliban itself was an indirect by-product of US funding of the mujahedeen movements against the occupying Soviets in the 1980s.

The other radical new element of America’s strategy will be talking to the Taliban. But this will be less an attempt to come up with a grand deal, and more an effort to split and demoralise the enemy – and it risks backfiring if anti-Taliban Afghans think a deal will be a figleaf for Britain and America to pull out and leave them to their fate.

America’s military power will have to be the instrument of persuasion for America’s Afghan supporters who are waiting to see if America really means to win.

Nick Day, CEO of Diligence Global Business Intelligence and a former Special Boat Service officer and British Intelligence agent who now monitors Islamist groups, believes that increased US military power could win the war.

He said: “All the drone aircraft and helicopters they can bring in will make a huge difference, and the Americans have learned a lot about counter-insurgency in Iraq. Their soldiers are professional and committed.

“And once the violence level has been dampened down, then it will be time to look for an exit.”

What is not clear, however, is exactly how many more troops General Petraeus will have.

The US military is exhausted after years of combat in Iraq, from where the general plans to gradually withdraw his men.

US commanders have asked for 20,000 more soldiers to reinforce the 64,000 Western troops currently in Afghanistan, but so far the Pentagon has approved only one army brigade – about 4,000 men. More will arrive next summer, but they will certainly be less than the 30,000 extra troops that were sent to Iraq for last year’s troop surge.

If they prove to be not enough, and if the jihadists continue to flock in, American troops could find themselves struggling in an increasingly bloody quagmire instead of getting to grips with the Taliban.

The Soviets, after all, sent 140,000 men to fight Afghan guerrillas at the height of their war and still lost.

As fresh American troops drive between their heavily-fortified bases next year, past ambush points and along roads where the ground can erupt at any moment in a minestrike, they will often see the carcasses of Soviet tanks. And they may reflect that every other army that has tried to win Afghanistan by sending in more troops has left the same way; in humiliation and defeat.

http://tinyurl.com/59h36l





Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 11/02/2008 at 09:39 AM    avatar
War On TerrorTrackbacks (0) • Permalink

Get it in writing!

Oh wretched, heartless, ungrateful son!

Julian McCoy is suing to evict his 88-year-old mother from the home where she has lived for 30 years.

Although she can’t drive, uses a walker, has trouble crossing a room and is hard of hearing, Gladys Napier is fighting back.

She has asked a judge to give her back the house. She deeded it to her son two years ago, believing that she would be allowed to stay there the rest of her life, according to court pleadings.

To me, this is an example of how liberal policies are resulting in the weakening of family ties and obligations. Mr. McCoy doubtless thinks that Social Security, Medicare, etc, will care well enough for his mother. But she’s his mother, not mine, and I shouldn’t have to shoulder the burden of caring for her.




Napier, a retired postal worker, bought the modest four-bedroom house, near State Road 50 and Goldenrod Road, in 1974. Eight years ago, Napier’s daughter, Carol E. Caldwell, 65, moved in as her caretaker.

“She’s all I’ve got,” Napier said. Two years ago, Napier asked her children for help: She had run up $43,000 in home-equity debt. She only had to pay the bank $155 a month, but it was an adjustable-rate loan, and she was afraid her payments were about to escalate out of control, court papers show.

That’s when McCoy, 68, of Pensacola offered to help. He would refinance the debt if she would give him the house, court records show.

“It was all to save my grandmother’s house,” McCoy’s daughter Kim Gambino said.

But McCoy began to charge Caldwell rent. First it was $450 a month; then in June, it jumped to $750, according to court records.

McCoy did not return phone calls, but Gambino said the demand was aimed at Caldwell—not Napier.

“He didn’t want my aunt living there,” Gambino said.

Last year, McCoy sued to evict Caldwell but settled when she agreed to pay $453 a month, court records show.

“Mother is too old to be left alone,” Caldwell wrote in court papers. “I honestly feel I should pay zero $0.00 dollars rent to the plaintiff because I am the sole housekeeper, cook, laundress, (and I) take mother to the doctor and lab and see to her emotional needs and well being.”

Caldwell paid her brother rent for several months, then quit, court records show.

Several months ago, he offered to sell her the house for $105,000, saying he had four investors wishing to buy it.

In July, after she refused that offer, McCoy filed another eviction lawsuit, this time demanding the ouster of both Caldwell and Napier, court records show.

So the sister, who is of retirement age herself, is full-time caretaker and he wants to charge her rent? If I were sister, I’d turn around and charge him full-time in-home care rates!

Bottom line for the elderly in dealing with children in situations like this: Get it in writing. Don’t trust your children. Maintenance contracts go back at least to the Middle-Ages. In Life in the Middle Ages by Frances and Joseph Gies, there is an account of such a contract from 1294:

At Cranfield in 1294, Elias de Bretendon made a more complicated agreement with his son John; John was to take over his house, yard, and half virgate for the services and money rent owed the lord. “And . . . the above John will provide suitable food and drink for Elias and his wife Christine while they are alive, and they will have residence with John [in his house].” The contract left nothing to chance:

And if it should happen, though may it not, that trouble and discord should in the future arise between the parties so that they are unable to live together, the above John will provide for Elias and Christine, or whichever of them should outlive the other, a house and curtilage [yard] where they can decently reside. And he will give each year to the same Elias and Christine or whichever of them is alive, six quarters of hard grain at Michaelmas, namely three quarters of wheat, one and one-half quarters of barley, one and one-half quarters of peas and beans, and one quarter of oats.
[The addition evidently gave trouble, since the total is not six but seven quarters.]

See? Get it in writing!

The Obamarxist wants to accelerate this disintegration of the family in accordance with the Communist Manifesto:

Abolition of the family!  Even the most radical flare up at this infamous proposal of the Communists.

On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, based?  On capital, on private gain.  In its completely developed form this family exists only among the bourgeoisie.  But this state of things finds its complement in the practical absence of the family among the proletarians, and in public prostitution.

The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course when its complement vanishes, and both will vanish with the vanishing of capital.

This follows upon the abolition of capital and private property. Things like nationalizing your 401(k). Obama would call it ‘spreading the wealth’.

Oh wretched, heartless, ungrateful, and greedy son!

cross-posted at Something’s Rotten.


Posted by Christopher   United States  on 11/02/2008 at 10:04 AM    avatar
Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsEconomicsNanny StateOutrageousTrackbacks (0) • Permalink

After a Barack Obama election victory party, a hangover will follow.

And in other comments NOT posted here, a very much conservative Simon Heffer says that “America can’t get rid of Bush fast enough.”
Is President Bush really as despised even by our side as I’m led to believe here?  I know some may think I could keep up more with home (USA) stuff then I do, but my defense can only be you’ve no idea what I have on my plate here.  It really isn’t easy as it may seem.  Though I do read what I can.  Point is however, what I read doesn’t paint quite that picture.  But then , I haven’t been reading the left.  Maybe I should.


Finally, America will elect a new president this week. Many voters believe that if Barack Obama wins, a new day will dawn in American politics.

US presidential election 2008

For his supporters, Mr Obama has become an almost Messianic figure. Many believe an Obama presidency will mean that America withdraws from the wars to which George W. Bush has committed troops.

Many also think he will increase the federal government’s role in the economy, so as to achieve goals such as providing universal health care.

If Mr Obama is elected, there will inevitably be disappointment and frustration, as millions of those who voted for him discover that he is mortal, and cannot achieve the miracles they hoped for.

In the straightened economic circumstances which America will find itself, the new universal health care plan he promises may not be affordable.

Moreover, the new President will find himself confronting so far intractable foreign policy challenges, such as the belligerence of a soon-to-be-nuclear Iran, the difficulties of trying to achieve peace in the Congo, and of securing victory in Afghanistan.

If he does anything at all about those problems, Mr Obama will disappoint those who voted for him in the expectation that he would end America’s use of armed force around the world.

As The Sunday Telegraph reports today, Mr Obama is already preparing to ask Britain to commit an additional 3,000 troops to Afghanistan.

Unlike George W. Bush, Mr Obama enjoys significant popularity in Europe. But after the years of bloody war in Iraq and Afghanistan, even he may struggle to achieve the commitment from European nations he says is essential – especially given the very high level of borrowing that so many countries have already committed themselves to in bailing out their banks.

Still, Barack Obama has a unique opportunity to help revitalise America’s influence on the world as a force for good. If he is elected, we hope he will use that opportunity wisely.

http://tinyurl.com/6mvctp

image


Don’t be fooled by Hillary on the stump

Bill and Hillary Clinton have been stumping the country this week to do their bit for Mr Obama, the 42nd President himself sharing a platform with the anointed, and associating himself very closely with him and his supposedly impending glory.

Now it looks as though Mr Obama has won, it is a typically shrewd Clinton move to ensure that their dynasty is tarred with the brush of the imminent victory. Do not underestimate the cynicism of these people.

Since Mr Obama might be president until 2016, when Mrs Clinton will be nearly the same age as John McCain, this may look selfless. But we know what Mrs Clinton really thinks: that some madman could well shoot President Obama. Good ol’ Joe Biden would be a comical president.

Hillary would be there in 2012 to restore order, with the added blessing that neither she nor her loathesome husband had done anything to impair the Obama victory.


Think about it: they certainly are.


Another woman with her eye on the prize

It’s not just Hillary who still has one rather tasteless eye on 2012. A group of prominent Republicans is scheduled to meet in Virginia next Wednesday - if John McCain loses, of course - to discuss ways of keeping Sarah Palin in the game until the next election.

Media bias has helped pass over the fact that Mrs Palin is hugely popular in much of middle America: here in the media village of Obamamaniacal New York the quickest way to get a laugh is to mention any sort of regard for her political skills.

http://tinyurl.com/6lg24c





Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 11/02/2008 at 07:49 AM    avatar
EditorialsPoliticsTrackbacks (0) • Permalink

Evolution of the Government schools 1957-2007

I probably should have titled this the Devolution of the government schools. I got this in an email from my buddy flapjawman.

Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.

1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.

2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.

1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.

2007 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario: Jeffrey won’t be still in class, disrupts other students.

1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.

2007 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor’s car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.

1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.

2007 - Billy’s dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy’s sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy’s mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.

1957 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.

2007 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.

1957 - Ants die.

2007- BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny’s Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.

1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.

2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

I know, this is a fictional email that’s doing the rounds. But I can recall similar stories to every single one of these scenarios. Stuff I did back in the 60’s and 70’s would get me arrested and/or drugged. I disrupted class, got into fights, took guns to school (my bolt-action .22 for the shooting club), carried aspirin, broke windows (not car windows, and not on purpose.). I got paddled at school AND again when I got home.

I think I turned out fairly well.

Stupid government schools.





Posted by Christopher   United States  on 11/02/2008 at 12:33 AM    avatar
Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsEducationNanny StateOutrageousTrackbacks (0) • Permalink

calendar   Saturday - November 01, 2008

Oops. . . that’s a flogging, not a stoning

More from the peaceful religion of Islam.

Mogadishu - A 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped was stoned to death in Somalia after being accused of adultery by Islamic militants, a human rights group said.

Dozens of men stoned Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow to death on October 27 in a stadium packed with 1 000 spectators in the southern port city of Kismayo, Amnesty International and Somali media reported, citing witnesses.

The Islamic militia in charge of Kismayo had accused her of adultery after she reported that three men had raped her, the rights group said.

Initial local media reports said Duhulow was 23, but her father told Amnesty International she was 13.

Some of the Somali journalists who first reported the killing later told Amnesty International that they had reported she was 23 based upon her physical appearance.

Dozens of men? To stone a 13-yr-old girl? In front of a thousand spectators? Stoning is a spectator sport in Islam?

It would seem that they violated the Koran:

The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication – flog each of them with a hundred stripes: let not compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day: and let a party of the Believers witness their punishment.
An-Noor [24:3]

Oops! That’s a flogging, not a stoning. But notice the compassion? Or lack thereof that is required by Allah? And it is a spectator sport!

Isn’t that sweet?

cross-posted at Something’s Rotten





Posted by Christopher   United States  on 11/01/2008 at 06:11 PM    avatar
RoPMATrackbacks (0) • Permalink

Another “failed policy”

Looking back to one year ago ....

image

The U.S. budget deficit fell to the lowest level in five years last week, but three of America’s leading newspapers—the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times—couldn’t find the space to mention the dramatic drop.

Journalists who have spent years trashing President Bush’s tax cuts appeared to suddenly lose interest when the budget picture brightened. That’s not surprising, however, considering that mainstream reporters frequently ignore upbeat economic news.

For 49 straight months, dating back to August 2003, the U.S. economy has added jobs. More than 8 million, in fact. Yet the only time economic news seems to hit the front page is when there’s something bad to report. No wonder Bush gets little credit.

A study by the Business and Media Institute last month revealed the “past four years of media coverage on jobs have been marred by pessimistic predictions, omissions, lack of economic context and focus on job losses instead of gains.” One of the biggest offenders was Katie Couric of the “CBS Evening News,” but she’s hardly alone.

More here at RedPlanetCartoons. MUCH more.

image




It’s all connected. Perception is how we see things, but for the most part we see things that are pointed out to us. In other words, we get led around. By those who show how how reality “is” every day of the year. And you know the other reality they’re sticking in your eyes as well ...

image

PS - for more great political cartoons, check out the Rhysind Sketchbook. Outstanding!





Posted by Drew458   United States  on 11/01/2008 at 02:04 PM    avatar
Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsMedia-BiasTrackbacks (0) • Permalink

One last scary message

“After decades of broken politics in Washington, eight years of the failed politics of the Bush administration and 21 months of campaigning, we are five days away from fundamentally changing the United States of America”

Barack H. Obama
October 30, 2008
Columbia, Missouri


Thank you, no. It’s you who needs fundamental change Senator Government. We’ll keep America as it is.




I don’t know about y’all, but I think I am going to be first in line when the polls open at 6am.

Maybe you don’t think you can trust the voting machines. Maybe you think the vast number of fraudulent voters are going to put the fix in. Maybe you think it’s not worth it either way, because John McCain is no Fred Thompson. Maybe you’ve just been beat down by the never ending polling, the incessant Obama ads, and the entire media, bar one, in the tank for the Obastard. But you can’t help win it if you’re not in it. Fight the ennui. Get back on your feet. Do your duty and vote.

Besides, this story over at the Rott says certain polls and insider info show that it could still be a McCain blow out!





Posted by Drew458   United States  on 11/01/2008 at 10:59 AM    avatar
Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsTrackbacks (0) • Permalink

Good one

Thanks Carol!

Since we’re in the middle of the presidential campaign, I figured political humor might be in store. The following is a funny and true story shared with me by KC who teaches AP Government at Santa Fe High School.  In one of KC’s classes, they were discussing the qualifications to be president of the United States.  It was pretty simple.

The candidate must be a natural born citizen of at least 35 years of age.

However, one girl in the class immediately started in on how unfair was the requirement to be a natural born citizen.  In short, her opinion was this requirement prevented many capable individuals from becoming president.  KC and the class were just taking it in and letting her rant, but everyone’s jaw hit the floor when she wrapped up her argument by stating ...

“What makes a natural born citizen any more qualified to lead this country than one born by c-section?”





Posted by Drew458   United States  on 11/01/2008 at 10:33 AM    avatar
HumorTrackbacks (0) • Permalink

13 months of Sarah

Hometown photographer trying to make a few bucks. Ride those coattails!

via TeamSarah.org

Sarah Palin Calendar!




image



available here, $15.95




If you haven’t been out to visit TeamSarah, give it a shot. You need to register, but there is good stuff there, and you can get involved in some last minute grassroots efforts.







Posted by Drew458   United States  on 11/01/2008 at 09:04 AM    avatar
Fun-StuffRepublicansTrackbacks (0) • Permalink

New Definitions

I caught 10 seconds of Geraldine Ferraro on Fox News this morning, explaining why the Democrats need to raise your taxes. To build schools, repair infrastructure, etc. “You can’t do these things if you keep cutting everyone’s taxes. There would be no money for anything.”

And then out it comes ... “It’s not like we want to take all your money. That would be Socialism.”

Um, no Geri, that would be slavery.

Interesting - frightening - way this woman has of expressing her views. Cutting taxes is the same as getting rid of taxes altogether, but 100% taxation is just Socialism. Hey, I understand a bit of exaggeration to make your point, but this is so extreme that it’s binary. All or nothing. And she’s the Dem who’s the outsider these past few months.





Posted by Drew458   United States  on 11/01/2008 at 08:54 AM    avatar
Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsTrackbacks (0) • Permalink

calendar   Friday - October 31, 2008

A Taste of Things To Come?

Obama boots 3 newspaper’s reporters from his Obaplane

All 3 papers had endorsed McCain

Journalists from three major newspapers that endorsed John McCain—the Washington Times, the New York Post and the Dallas Morning News—have been booted from Barack Obama’s campaign plane for the final leg of the presidential race.

The Washington Times reported Friday that it was notified of the Obama campaign’s decision Thursday evening—even though the paper has covered Obama from the start.

Executive Editor John Solomon told FOXNews.com that the Obama campaign said it didn’t have enough seats on the plane, but “I don’t think the explanation makes sense to us.”

“We’ve been traveling since 2007 with him. ... We’re a relevant newspaper—every day we break news,” Solomon said. “And to suddenly be kicked off the plane for people who haven’t covered it as aggressively or thoroughly as we are ... it sort of feels unfair.”

He said the newspaper protested but was turned down again by the campaign.

“I can only hope that the candidate who describes himself as wanting to unite the nation doesn’t have some sort of litmus test for who he decides gets to cover the campaign,” Solomon said, noting that the Obama campaign’s decision came just two days after the paper endorsed McCain.

According to the Web site The Drudge Report, the three newspapers’ reporters were told to find alternative transportation by Sunday so that the plane could accommodate “network bigwigs” and reporters from two black magazines, Essence and Jet.

Via Drudge:
“The Obama campaign has decided to heave out three newspapers from its plane for the final days of its blitz across battleground states—and all three endorsed Sen. John McCain for president!
The NY POST, WASHINGTON TIMES and DALLAS MORNING NEWS have all been told to move out by Sunday to make room for network bigwigs—and possibly for the inclusion of reporters from two black magazines, ESSENCE and JET, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. Despite pleas from top editors of the three newspapers that have covered the campaign for months at extraordinary cost, the Obama campaign says their reporters—and possibly others—will have to vacate their coveted seats so more power players can document the final days of Sen. Barack Obama’s historic campaign to become the first black American president. ”

Via the Washington Times:
“This feels like the journalistic equivalent of redistributing the wealth. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars covering Senator Obama’s campaign, traveling on his plane, and taking our turn in the reporter’s pool, only to have our seat given away to someone else in the last days of the campaign,” said Washington Times Executive Editor John Solomon. News organizations typically pay campaigns for the cost of traveling on the candidate’s planes.

The Washington Times endorsed Mr. McCain on Tuesday.

“I hope the candidate that promises to unite America isn’t using a litmus test to determine who gets to cover his campaign,” Mr. Solomon said. ”

There ya go. Given the boot. Because of their paper’s views? Or because they weren’t elite bigwigs? Or because a couple black reporters needed those seats?

Signs and portents folks, signs and portents.




image

“And stay out!”


or maybe not? Looks like McCain has played a similar game himself.

Dallas Morning News Editor Bob Mong told FOXNews.com that the “indication” from the Obama campaign was that they were kicked off the plane since they don’t represent a national outlet and they don’t represent a swing state.

“We argued that [considering] the size of the Morning News and stature, we obviously would want to be on board,” Mong said. “We’re obviously not happy about it, and continue to protest.”

He said, in fairness, that the McCain campaign recently pulled Morning News staff off the Republican’s plane when space became an issue—but he said the Morning News would be back on McCain’s plane again this weekend.

Obama is not the only candidate to play hardball with the press. McCain’s campaign has reportedly barred Time columnist Joe Klein and New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who have been critical of the Republican candidate, from the Republican candidate’s plane.

Well, I’d say banning Klein and Dowd is understandable. “critical” is the understatement of the decade with regards to them. And Mong’s case was obviously temporary and due to actual overcrowding.

maybe this is just a case of uppity reporters getting their noses out of joint over losing a free ride





Posted by Drew458   United States  on 10/31/2008 at 12:12 PM    avatar
Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsMedia-BiasTrackbacks (0) • Permalink

HALLOWEEN 2008 AND MEMORIES OF BETTER YEARS PAST.


A FEW THOUGHTS AT HALLOWEEN, 2008.

I suppose we all enjoy being frightened, as long as there’s no real danger to us.
That would explain why horror shows have been popular.
It certainly explains the popularity of the radio programs of my day.

Programs such as SUSPENSE, THE INNER SANCTUM and LIGHTS OUT to name just three.

An aside if I may and an interesting one. There are only two sounds in radio that are trademarked.  The creaking door of Inner Sanctum, and the NBC chimes.

I am not concerned with movies here but something oft referred to as the “Theater of the mind.” And trust me, it was.

Even commercials could be scary and one in particular, the Bromo Seltzer radio commercial leading into Inner Sanctum.

I think to fully appreciate what I’m saying the expression, you had to be there applies. 


The Bromo Seltzer radio commercial has never been equalled for chills.  Sure, you modern kids that were brought up with blood and gratuitous gore might not get all tingly.  But keep in mind the era I’m writing about.  The 1940’s to about 1953 or possibly 1955.  When I was growing up in the 40’s, it was a slower time, there wasn’t any TV yet, movies could be scary, The Mummy comes to mind, and sex hadn’t been invented yet. So for sheer thrills, listening to a radio mystery alone, at night , with the lights out, was thrilling.

The ad agency for Bromo Seltzer might have been the first to use something we’d call techie today. Well, I might.  They did it with the human voice and an organ. The organ of course was the staple for radio mysteries and soapers. 

Bromo Seltzer sponsored Inner Sanctum and you can easily find the program online today.  The commercial itself was boring as most are, BUT , the intro and lead right up to the show was creepy.
“Fight headache, threeeeee waaaaaysss – chug-chug- bromo seltzer, bromo seltzer, bromoseltzer..  Each repeat of the product name building and speeding up and giving the impression of a train leaving the station … choo-choo and that lonesome whistle leading up right onto that evening’s show.  Sometimes that was the best part of the program.  It set the stage for what was coming.

Bromo_Seltzer2_CUT.mp3

One of the times I believe my generation, and my parents as well, could justly use the term “The Good Old Days” and not suffer by comparison with more modern times and technology, was radio.
Roma Wines sponsored SUSPENSE, one of the most literate and well done programs of it’s time, referred to as the theater of thrills.  A producer of that show was the late William Spier who hired Orson Wells long before he became theee Orson Wells.  I know that because I did an interview with Mr. Spier at his home in Ct. many years ago.  He also wrote and directed a good many of the shows.

I feel so darn bad now that I hadn’t saved all the photos I had from so many years ago of some truly talented and wonderful people.
Of particular interest here is a show titled, “THE HOUSE IN CYPRESS CANYON.”
Even as an adult, that show and one other Suspense offering, “THE THING ON THE FORBLE BOARD” are still remembered by me today as chilling.  But by far the scariest was The House in Cypress Canyon.  It’s a much better offering in the chill factor then War of the Worlds. I would urge you to listen to it if you can make the time.  Go ahead. Listen to it and see if you don’t agree.
But it should be listened to as we did. With nothing to get in the way or interrupt the listening and concentration.  I guess we were pretty lucky. There wasn’t anything else to take our attention or get in the way.

http://ia341011.us.archive.org/2/items/SUSPENSE2/45-12-05_The_House_In_Cypress_Canyon.MP3

Apologies for the quality on the above. It’s simply there if anyone want to link and listen.  The quality isn’t bad all the way through and it’s still worth it.

And there was everyone’s other favorite along with Suspense, “THE INNER SANCTUM.”

After some three or so bars of organ music, the show would open and you’d hear Raymond turning a door knob and next you’d hear the sound of a squeaking door.
A longish squeak that of course suggested menace. 

The Inner Sanctum was hosted by Raymond. He called us friends, in a very creepy sort of way.  Good evening friends, won’t you come in.  This way. With his words and vowels drawn out and a slight menacing sound to his chuckle which wasn’t a chuckle at all.  Squeeeek went that door and once we were inside … SLAM
Then came some graveyard humor, and a laugh that was intended to make the listener shiver.  It always did.

People listened as much to hear Raymond as they did the program. Perhaps more. And believe me, he was always worth listening to, with that creepy yet somehow humorous voice. 

After the first commercial break Raymond would come back and immediately bring us back into his dark world and it was as though we’d never left for the break.
At the end of the program our host would intone; Well, now it’s time to close the squeaking door of the Inner Sanctum until next week.
So good niii-ight… Pleasant dreammmmssss?” Heh-heh-heh-heh-haaaaaaaaaaa!
And the way he drew out that word dreams as his voice rose at the end in a question, absolutely raised shivers up the spine.
(Sound effect: Squeaking door sloooowly closes shut.)

this link is just the intro and out, for the program. For brevity I cut out the show. But this short 1:52 clip give you the idea.
Inner_Sanctum_410518_Dead_Freight_CUT_CUT.Mp3

Raymond Edward Johnson was a great,great actor and voice from that period.  I had the honor to meet and be part of a group that helped the great man in his later years
when he was destitute and living alone in much reduced circumstances. We hunted for him and he was found, in a wheel chair and living on the second floor of a resident hotel in NH, overweight, broke and forgotten by all. He thought. Well not quite. We got him out of the hotel and into a VA hospital and in months he lost weight, his color was back as much as it would ever get, and he was on the mend.  In a sense. 
He was still suffering as he had for many years from MS.  But I met and shook hands with and helped a man I’d listened to for so long.  He gave me an old reel to reel tape which may well be the only one in existence, of dramatic readings he’d done in better years.  The man was a master of his craft.

In the early days of radio actors played multiple parts on many shows.  For example, Raymond was also Mandrake the Magician, Kato, on the Green Hornet, Don Winslow, of Don Winslow of the Navy and that’s just naming a few.
His sister was also in radio btw.  She played on a show my grandmother would never miss called, Ma Perkins.  Not for young boys of course. Boring to any but grandmas.

Raymond suffered from Multiple Sclerosis for a very long time. Called to Hollywood at one point, and I had the still photos once of the audition scenes, he just could not hide his condition although he tried.  He had a cane by then and tried to hide that. But his condition gave him away.

In 1997 he appeared at a gathering of the Friends of Old Time Radio. He delivered a reading from a portable bed.

Do you recall a movie with Richard Gere called “Power?” The year was 1986. 
In that movie, the lead played by Gere is on a private jet. He’s got a pair of drummers sticks and I think he was tapping out Sing-Sing-Sing with BG’s recording in the background.  We saw this movie in the theater.  So, this short man whose face you do not see is walking up the isle and Gere says to him, “Hi Jackson.” The actor replies hello back.  No more then a word and that was all we’d see of him.
I was the only person in that audience who knew exactly who that guy was with his one line word.  Damn near fell outta my seat.  Told the wife, my god. That was Jackson Beck. That was Jackson Beck.  I waited through the whole movie for his return but of course he never did.  But there was his name in the credits at the end of the movie. 

Who was Jackson Beck? Just the little man with the VERY BIG voice on radio who announced for every boy in America, “Look, Look up in the sky.  It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No. IT’S SUPERMAN.”

He worked right up into old age doing hundreds of voice overs and no doubt you’ve heard him on commercials in the 80s, on TV.  He was really short and so when I first met him at a dinner and gathering our radio organization held in Ct., I was shocked.
I expected someone huge because he had this large voice. No a loud voice mind you.  But big. 

So, what I’d intended as a Halloween thing has turned into a trip down memory lane.

It couldn’t be helped and no apologies forthcoming.  I’ve had a lifelong love affair with radio and am happy that for a brief time in my life, I too was a tiny part of the business.  But gosh, I wish it could have been in the 30s and 40s.  I was born too late.  I should also confess that being in love with radio is also somewhat like being in love with an unfaithful mistress.

image
RAYMOND EDWARD JOHNSON
JULY 1911 - AUGUST 2001

Stay Tuned





Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 10/31/2008 at 10:30 AM    avatar
Blog StuffTrackbacks (0) • Permalink

Double Dipper

Joe Biden is running for Vice President

Joe Biden is running for Senator


Both at the same time





I just heard this on the news. Somehow - I don’t live in Delaware after all - I’ve missed this one. I’m still on my first cup of coffee, so it’s too early for me to go digging through the Constitution and various US Codes to check on the legality of it, but this doesn’t “taste” right. By which I mean that the story is true; Biden is running for both positions at the same time. It just feels unethical to me. Doubling down and covering your bets is an Ok practice at the casino, but it isn’t what I’d call proper behavior for a candidate.

If you are running for one office you should not also be running for another. The news people say he is likely to be re-elected to his Senate position. The other news people talk non-stop about how the polls say Obama-Biden ticket has the Big Ticket all but sewn up. What happens if he wins both? Do we have any actual rules that prohibit him from double dipping? Can he be both Senator and President of the Senate at the same time? One man, two votes? Or would his double win force him to give up one of the jobs, allowing it to be filled by appointment, completely ignoring the will of the people? Neither result is right in my opinion.

My sense of right and wrong tells me that it is also wrong for any of these candidates to hold onto their elected positions while campaigning for another office. McCain, Obama are Senators. So is Clinton. So was Kerry. And so on. Palin is a state Governor. How much Senating or Governoring are these people doing right now? And considering that this election season has gone on for a full two years now, and the previous one was nearly as long? I think the people in their states are being ripped off. If they aren’t, then their absence from their paying jobs shows just how unnecessary those elected jobs really are.

But what about incumbents? Well, let them run for re-election. As long as they put in 32 hours a week or more - the basic definition of a full time job - on their elected position, they can campaign all they want. Give them a time card or something.

When you reach for the gold ring on the merry-go-round of life you have to lean out. That means taking a bit of risk. Running for two positions at the same time isn’t leaning out. It’s making sure a brass ring is also within easy reach. This is not a bold and daring move I would expect a prospective leader would take. It feels like cheating.





Posted by Drew458   United States  on 10/31/2008 at 08:11 AM    avatar
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