Googling Media Falsehoods

It appears that, thanks to Tech Central Station, that the Mainstream Media are not very good at executing their jobs.

Now as I understand it, the job of a reporter is to, well, report the facts. Now we all know that the Mainstream Media is completely biased against Republicans in general and George W. Bush in particular. This fact was exposed, if nit wasn't obvious before, by Dan Rather and Mary Mapes' pursuit of the false story of Bush-AWOL. Never mind that Clinton is an admitted draft dodger! That was OK in 1992-1998. Only in 2000 did that suddenly become not OK if the person was a perffectly responsible reservist. By the way, Big Media- George can fly fast fighter planes. Can any of you?In fact can you do anything other than carp at Republican managment of this country and wish your attempts at throwing the last two elections hadn't failed? But I digress....

The Mainstream Media also are fairly clueless regarding the actual substance of the stroies the public relies on them to report. Case in point is the TV "technology reporter" on a California local television station who was talking about one of the company Logitech's products. THis ignoramous, after taking the anchor through a fairly accurate description of the product in questsion, then fatuously identified the underlying wireless technology known as Bluetooth as being 'made by a company called Bluetooth'! This had me rolling on the floor laughing at her appalling ignorance and clear lack of research.

However, it appears that so-called reporters who work for big news purveyors are not much better. The current campaign amongst the media elite and their friends in the Democratic Party and on the Left is that Bush Lied in order to get us into war. However, if you do a Google search on three little words- 'Clinton Iraq 1998', you will discover links to all sorts of articles printed BY THE NEWS MEDIA that disproves their entire thesis.

Read the whole thing. Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds.

What are We Fighting For?

I received an email from a friend today, pointing me towards the subject of today's post. Normally, I take these forwarded email commentaries with a large grain of salt, as their is a lot of forgery possible with today's technology- ask Dan Rather! However, I found the source for this one, so I in turn am pointing you towards it to read for yourselves.

A retired Major general, Vernon Chong of the United States Air Force wrote an article for the magazine eco-logic Powerhouse on October 1, 2005, regarding the war and what it would mean if we lose it. And yes, Virginia, this is a war. Regardless of what our liberal neighbors want to think, this is a war. Only their ignorance and blind hatred of the President have so far made them unable to recognize it. However, as much as I regard them with contempt, i cannot wish that we lose so that they discover first-hand what life under sharia is like. They will be the first to die, since it is their agenda that is most anathemous to the Muslims they so love to praise!

However, that is neither here nor there. General Chong spelled out the situation and its causes very concisely. And one of the things that the General wrote was as follows:

If we lose the war, our production, income, exports, and way of life will all vanish, as we know it. After losing, who would trade or deal with us, if they were threatened by the Muslims?

If we can't stop the Muslims, how could anyone else?

The Muslims fully know what is riding on this war, and therefore, are completely committed to winning, at any cost. We better know it too, and be likewise committed to winning at any cost.

There is much, much more. Major General Chong does not accuse the liberals and their friends in the Press of disloyaty and treason, though I think that is exactly what they are doing, spurred by their hatred of Republicans and conservatives. They consider George Bush a greater threat than Osama Bin Laden. Their mistake. It is not George Bush who will behead them when they wish to protest that pornography is protected. It is not George Bush who will marry off their daughters without their permission, then rape and execute them for 'shaming the family'. It is Muslim extremists. When will the United States wake up? It took the attack on Pearl Harbor to wake us out of our post-World War I sleep. What will it take this time? A Muslim imam dictacting our rights under sharia from the steps of the Supreme Court?

Read the whole thing and make up your own mind.

More From The 'Religion of Peace'

The so-called mainstream media really likes to emphasize that Islam is a religion of peace. Well, OK. Maybe they have changed their spots since their origin in as a blood-soaked, misogynous, hate-filled culture that has historically spread by destroying other cultures and converting the people at the edge of a sword. This stands in stark contrast to most of the world's other major religions, few of which match Islam's ferocity and desire to spread by the sword- at least not recently.

Neither Christianity nor Judaism has been known as a top-down religion, and neither has ever made a concentrated effort to control the world by sword, though both have had edisodes where individuals or single states undertook imperial endeavors under the name of God. However, at no time did the entire Christian world, urged on by the organs of the united Christian Church attempt to conquer the rfest of the world and convert it to Christianity.

You may bring up the Crusdaes. I remind you first that not all Christians participated (the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Byzantine Empire throughout remained in a position of watchful neutrality) and second that the forces of Europe did not unite under the leadership of the Pope- very much different from the warrior imams who preach holy crusade to Islam throughout history. And I will also remind the reader that the Crusades were specifically a reaction to the Muslim destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and in general a reaction to protect fellow Christians against the cruel treatment of non-Muslim pilgrims- they did not originate in a vacuum.

I biring up this history lesson because Al Quaeda (an organization that is covertly supported and cheered on by a large percentage of the world's Muslim population) today declared Queen Elizabeth II of England an 'enemy of Islam'. Since the Queen, despite her titular position as the Head of the Church of England is one of the most secular (and constitutional) monarchs in the world, I fail to see what she has done to be an 'enemy of Islam' other than by her existence and choice of religion. This declaration should clearly show that al Quaeda (remember- they are supported and cheered on by a sizable percentage of the world's Muslim population) are still trying to accomplish the goal that they have aimed at since the sixth century AD- destroy all religions and peoples other than those of Islam.

Still think Islam is a 'religion of peace'? I don't wish to live the life of a dhimmi- still less do I wish to subordinate myself to a religion such as Islam. And remember that dhimmis are only memmbers of 'officially tolerated non-Muslim religions- something that only Muslims can decide- not the dhimmis. I find I have a lack of faith in Islam's ability to keep any promises relating to non-Muslims status under sharia. So I'll keep my weapons sharp for these followers of the 'religion of peace'. And continue to expose the cowardly and ignorant 'journalists' who are so industrious in advancing this false dictum. I understand why politicians must mouth this drivel- but for journalists to do it speaks either or fear to write the truth or mountainous ignorance both of Islam and of their own culture.

Election Results

So I observe that all of Governor Schwarzenegger's pet initiatives in California went down to defeat last night. That is too bad. The one-party state in the People's Republic of California badly needed a shake-up, and these initiatives were a step in the right direction. Since I do not believe all the information is in, I will reserve judgement, but I believe that California is herading in a direction tat does not bode well for its future. Every state that has gone the big-government, high-tax route in the past (see New York, Massachusetts, etc) has suffered repercussions, and California is no different, in my opinion. So now the people of California have spoken. But it is still a crying shame.

in other news, it appears that the Democratic Party made some gains, winning the governorships in Virginia and New Jersey. No surprise in New Jersey, but I believe that Virginia can be laid at the feet of the MSM, who have done their best to downplay the Bush administration's accomplishments, and have made destroying his Presidency their number-one goal since he first won election in 2000. The media need to be reined in. I don't know what we can do to convince them that their job is objective reporting (unless they clearly identify their biases), but the current propaganda disguised as news attitude in most major newsrooms is unacceptable. The Press' job is to honestly report- not to work as the Goebbels Ministry in support of the Democratic Party. When will the American people wake up and realize just how corrupt the media really is?

The only bright spot in the day yesterday was the Texas population's rebuke to activist judges, taking the power to define marriage out of the Judiciary's hands by adding a state constitutional amendment making gay 'marriage' illegal. Not that I have anything against the gay movement, but I do believe that the people (or their elected representatives), and not a bunch of unelected judges, should make decisions of this magnitude.

Hat tip to Matt Drudge.

Does Lightning Strike Twice?

Maybe it does in the world of personal computing. It is clear that the behemoth of Redmond has won the overall operating system war, with a virtual monopoly on the operating systems of the world's PCs. However, Apple, despite its failure to win the intial battle, may be sneaking back in. As Paul Andrews, a columnist for the Seattle Times writes today regarding the Windows-to-Mac switching,

How much switching is going on? Commenting on Microsoft's recent quarterly earnings report, some analysts speculated the Redmond giant might be losing market share to Apple.

This would be a Good Thing. We are all aware of Microsoft's predatory business practices and almost insatiable deisre to win over all users, whatever their OS so as to be unchallenged. On that note, I was saddened to hear the announcement of a Windows-based Treo OS. THis led to the realization that Palm Computing has lost the PDA wars to Microsoft as well, though I predicted such a result when I worked for Palm some years ago. Palm simply didn't have the management vision and were too obsessed with bottom line to beat the Gates machine. Perhaps they may stage an Apple-like resurgeance as well, but I think it is unlikely. Palm squandered their once-impressive lead in the PDA market and their management was always too pedantic even to realize what kind of product they were trying to sell.

Microsoft has made themselves many enemies, though, despite their virtually unchallenged dominance of the corporate PC market. Their multitudinous security hoels have spawned an entirely new industry, and their injudicious pricing and lack of response to their customers have led alternatives such as Linux, despite its unfriendly interface, to become viable threats to the monpoly- especially on the server side of things. And Apple itself, with its powerful and far more intuitive interface, has made huge strides in reliability and pricing- once the bane of the Apple faithful. Then there has been Microsoft's inability to match Apple's innovation. The new Windows OS, intended to replace XP and codenamed Longhorn, has been promised (in other words, has been in vaporware mode) since at least 2000, while Apple has made OSX into what it was always promised to be- a truly robust and powerful operating system.

On a historical note, since we are speaking of Apple's once-endemic quality problems, I remember the troubled and overpriced 5300 PowerBooks and Performas of the late 1990s with a shudder. My own reliable PowerBook 180c was finally retired from its place as my server (running KanjiTalk 7.5.3 with AppleShare Server 3.0- yes I am a geek) to a well-deserved place in my PowerBook Museum, replaced first by the marvelous Pismo (PowerBook G3 Firewire) and then by the 12-inch PowerBook G4 and the Mac Mini on which I am writing this piece as I speak.

So keep on switching, PC-users. Keep on switching to the Mac. Think Different, remember? It's 1984 all over again! And maybe...just maybe lightning DOES strike twice.

Border Security

When ladies who ought to be enjoying their privacy (and their grandchildren) at home are forced to stand guard at the border because their elected representatives are too cowardly to stand up for their constituents as opposed to a group of illegal aliens who have a loud-mouthed lobby, then things have truly gone the wrong way in this great country of ours.

It is every country's right to police its own sovereign borders. It is every country's right to determine for itself what kind and how many immigrants shall be admitted, without blustering threats from incompetent neighboring politicians. And we have a clear and present warning of the dangers inherent in surrendering to the multicultural, illegal-alien lobby in the French riots. Yet, the United States still doesn't seem to understand the stakes.

The Washington Times reported today that down on the US/Mexican border, that the so-called 'Granny Brigade', is working the border due to the inattention and uncaring attitude taken by their own elected representatives in Washington as well as the state capitols. One of them, a naturalized American citizen, made what is probably the best case. She noted the unfairness of forcing legal immigrants to go through the convoluted processes preferred by the INS, while illegal aliens are allowed to break the law and are then rewarded by amnesties.

Speaking as one married to a legal immigrant, and having been through the legalization process, I complteely agree. Why are we penalizing our legal immigrants, who quite often come with skills we can use, in favor of people who don't even respect us enough to obey our laws? Despite the noisy shouts of the multiculturalist lobby, there is a huge difference between legal and illegal immigration. Check the words 'legal' versus 'illegal'. And when will Washington and the affected local and state governments wake up? When San Francisco or Los Angeles erupts into the kind of riots that Paris is dealing with now? When the Hispanic version of the KKK (MECHA) declares open warfare on all those not in 'La Raza' in their bid to establish their Azatlan Empire pipe-dream? Hopefully, we will wake up before that comes to pass. Are you listening, Washington?

More Plagiarism From the Left...

Democrats have a long history of plagiarism, forgery and other dirty tricks. Joseph Bottum, the Books and Arts editor for the The Weekly Standard proved conclusively in 2004 that Lawrence Tribe, a frequent Democratic apologist and leading intellectual light on the Left, plagiarized a good part of his 1985 book God Save This Honorable Court from the earlier work Justices and Presidents by Henry Abraham. Another Harvard Law professor, Charles Ogletree, who was one of Anita Hill's lawyers during the Clarence Thomas hearings, recently admitted that he also plagiarized a number of paragraphs in his recent book All Deliberate Speed. And of course it has been known for some time that Martin Luther King, one of the Democratic Party's icons, plagiarized a good portion of his undergraduate and graduate works, including his doctoral dissertation! If you are in doubt, more evidence can be found at the Martin Luther King Plagiarism Page.

On the forgery side, who can forget Dan Rather and Mary Mapes' attempt to destroy President Bush's re-election using forged papers? Despite the obvious non-authenticity of the papers they came up with- and despite Mapes' five-year search for a way to destroy Bush (gee- can anyone imagine a media organization allowing one of their 'news'persons to spend five years looking for a documents that would aid a story making a Democrat look less-than-stellar???), Rather and Mapes are still in 'fake-but-accurate' denial.

And on the general dirty tricks side, the Democrats have long been known as the machine party- a party whose Illinois/Cook County organization stole the 1960 Presidential election from Richard Nixon, and whose operatives are currently in court responding to allegations of vandalism that may have been one of the many Democratic plans to keep Republicans from vvoting in 2004. In addition, there were also many documented instances of Democratic illegal vote-gathering and intimidation in the last Presidential election.

Now comes new evidence of the appalling lack of ethics on the Democratic side of the aisle. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that a letter regarding the impending confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito sent by Representative Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) to Senator Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) was plagiarized almost entirely from a blogger named Nathan Newman. This kind of behavior would have gotten a university student dismissed in my day. Hopefully there will be some kind of electoral retribution for the politician in question.

However, we are talking about Democrats. As the party of totalitarianism (based on their well-documented support for Stalin, Mao, the Taliban, Saddam Hussein, and Kim Jong Il) they have learned well the totalitarian adage first propagated by Adolf Hitler that "people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one". The quote is taken from a wartime report prepared by the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS), courtesy of Wikipedia. And because Democrats are the party whose ends justify the means, I suppose we should not expect any such retribution- at least not from thier party drones. We can only hope that the majority of the electorate can see past their spoken words of honey to the hypocrisy at their cores. After all, when you are a Democrat/Leftist, whose superior intellect mustn't be denied its chance to lead the little people, anything is fair in pursuit of winning over those same little people whose votes you so badly need. Isn't it?

Hat tip to Matt Drudge.

Hanson on Europe

One of my favorite former professors, Dr. Victor Davis Hanson, a specialist in ancient military history, with whom I was fortunate enough to study during my undergraduate years at California State University, Fresno, was on Hugh Hewitt's radio show earlier this evening talking about the European riots, and providing context, for those who are not too enamored of the socialist nightmare that Europe has become. He had himself just returned from the Continent, and spent an evening in Paris prior to returning to the United States.

For those who may be unaware of Professor Hanson, he is a renowned expert on the ancient culture of Classical Greece, with particular expertise in the Peloponnesian War (431-402 BC) between the rival city-states of Athens and Sparta. In addition to his sterling academic credentials, Dr. Hanson is also a working farmer in the Central Valley of California, with a keen understanding of the problems faced by family farms in today's era. He has published extensively, and has garnered a well-deserved reputation as an expert on contemporary political and military affairs as well.

The full transcript of Dr. Hanson's talk is posted on the fine Radioblogger site for your perusal. I highly recommend that you go over there and read the whole thing. Professor Hanson's commentary on current affairs can also be found on a weekly basis at National Review Online, and also on his own site, VDH's Private Papers.

Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds.

Chinese Entrepreneurship

I observe that Chinese government control on entrepreneurship apparently knows very few bounds. Breitbart News reported today that apparently a Chinese company has been shut down for selling land on the Moon! I seem to recall that there is at least one other company doing the same thing, that has encountered no governmental opposition from our own government (despite the 'fascist' Administration of George W. Bush), but apparently the Communist Chinese government doesn't want private companies selling land that the Chinese government might one day want for itself.

On the other hand, Chinese economic progress- especially in the development of military systems- apparently is still dependent on stealing secrets from other countries. As reported by The Washington Times, four people were arrested in Los Angeles and charged with stealing military secrets from the United States. Apparently all the secrets Bill Clinton's Administration gave China weren't enough. Hmm, I wonder what China could possibly want with those high-tech weapons systems? And their burgeoning and highly government-subsidized space program? Maybe they have designs on the Moon? Does make one think, does it not?

In any event, these events would seem to indicate that our Intelligence services should probably be keeping a close eye on China, despite the bleatings of our cowardly Liberal Left and their naive and suicidal belief that if America just unilaterally disarms, so will everyone else. I wonder if Tibet or Taiwan would agree with that assessment. And I wonder if the current anti-war movement, like those in the Cold War, is also financed (at least partially) by the Communists?

Hat tip to Matt Drudge.

Isn't It Interesting...

...that when a fringe group of so-called 'Christians' spark a massacre in a southwestern Texas town, the press is quick to publicize their religion as Christianity. If a well-known Christian minister vocalizes some comtroversial sentiments the international Press immediately points to his religious affiliation. The MSM almost never has anything positive to say about Christians in general and expecially Christian conservatives.

However, when a major Muslim holiday (Ramadan) ends and mostly Muslim immigrants riot for two weeks (so far) in the suburbs of Paris, the Press is extremely reluctant to admit their religion, even though a reading of the article in question provides plenty of evidence as to their religion as being Islam. When Christian schoolgirls are brutally murdered in a 50% Christian province in Indonesia, the Press does everything possible to ignore the religion of the attackers- despite the clear evidence in their own article that the attackers are almost certainly Muslim. And when a pair of black Americans go on a shooting rampage, and one of them has converted to Islam and has a Muslim name John Muhammed, the Press once again tries to downplay the Islamic connection as much as possible. The MSM even tried to whip up sympathy for the spoiled Marin County rich-kid brat John Walker Lindh, who managed to get himself arrested in Afghanistan and should have been executed for treason.

I touched on this in a post a few days ago. Why won't the Press admit that their much-advertised image of Islam as a "religion of peace" is both historically and currently an untrue representation of this warlike, backward and highly expansionist religion? Why doesn't the Press publicize the brutalities of Muslims towards Christians and their own as much as they do Christians or Jews?

Do you disbelieve me regarding the supposed brutality of our Middle Eastern foes? The perhaps you might want to see the Middle East Chronicles courtesy of Victor Davis Hanson's Private Papers. Then ask yourself why the Press appears to want to propagate falsehoods, while simultaneously and publicly supporting those who are doing their best to suppress Christianity? Just curious...

1720 UPDATE: I had not had a chance to check the blogosphere today, and just noticed that Captain's Quarters had posted on this at 0459 AM this morning, therefore, a very belated hat tip to Captain Ed Morrissey.

Press Bullying

Posting has been kind of light this week due to business and personal commitments. However, I noticed that the Press, depsite their public claims to be just one of the folks, still think that they can do things that an ordinary person cannot.

According to Matt Drudge, Judge Alito's 90-year-old mother is being harassed by legions of press personnel in attempts to gain interviews. It seems to me that Judge Alito's mother, who is by no stretch of the imagination a public person, might want to have recourse to legal assistance.

The press definitely should not have a dispensation to harass and otherwise torture ordinary people just becasue they might be related to someone who may be in the news. Judge Altio himself meets the definition of news-worthy and is a public person - after all, he is being proposed for a very important position. His mother is not. Why do reporters think that laws against harassment do not apply to them? Maybe we need to re-think what privileges reporters should have vis-a-vis other ordinary citizens. And these are the same people who are pressing for more special privileges in the form of a shield law????


Via the Drudge Report.

Religion & the MSM

When someone makes a remark that is less-than-flattering of Muslims, there is an immediate reaction from dozens of Muslim organizations, amplified by the MSM. Even when Muslims do something terrible, as happened on September 11, 2001 and many times before and thereafter (Daniel Pearl, Leon Klinghofer, the Russian schoolchildren, van Gogh, etc) the US media call for 'tolerance and understanding', and downplays the terrorist acts. There have been columns of newsprint agonizing over the post-9/11 'threatening' atmosphere toward Muslims in the United States and the Western world. However, it occurs to me that while we should definitely not encourage religious persecution, why aren't we worried about religious persecution when it is aimed at non-Muslims?

Case in point: Today the Sydney Morning Herald's online edition came out with a report that three Christian schoolgirls in Indonesia were beheaded in a brutal attack. Since beheadings have been for quite some time the favorite killing method of Muslims, and since the anti-Christian violence in the province of Sulawesi has been going on even after a cease-fire was negotiated in 2002, I wonder if this could be more of the same. Yet the US (and much of the rest of the Western world's) media, so obsessed with anti-Mulim acts here (many of which have turned out to be fakes perpetrated by Muslims themselves), have appeared to ignore this. Even the Sydney Morning Herald doesn't really explore the possibility that the attackers were Muslim, though the story itself leaves little doubt that they were. Nice brave Muslims, attacking innocent schoolgirls. Want to try that on one of our Marines, bullyboy? Of course not. The Marine might fight back- or more likely kill the S.O.B.

Hey MSM. There is a lot of anti-Christian persecution out there. In fact, most totalitarian states out there (China, Burma, North Korea, virtually any Muslim state) tend to be seriously opposed to Christianity.

Now I wonder why that is? It is interesting, since throughout history, Christianity has been a bottom-up religion. It has never been imposed on people by force. Constantine made it the official religion of the Roman Empire, but he didn't do it with an army- he merely acknowledged that it was now a mainstream religion. Even the Crusades were not an attempt to impose Christianity by force on Muslims. They were, if you will recall your history, called fby Pope Urban in 1095 on receipt of the news that Jerusalem had been brutally sacked and taken by the Muslims- just as so many other socieities had before them. In fact, it is Islam, not Christianity, that has a reputation of spreading by the edge of the sword. Ask the vanished cultures of North Africa. And today, the Sudan's Christians are being slowly and deliberately eliminated as quickly as possible, in the Darfur area, it appears.

So I ask the MSM. Could you possibly mention that once in a while? Otherwise, it might seem as though you didn't care about Christians being persecuted. Unless of course you really do enjoy seeing Christians persecuted and murdered? Just wondering...

Hat tip to Matt Drudge.

UPDATE: I have been cruising the blogosphere, and I see that both Captain's Quarters and Michelle Malkin have noted this new Muslim atrocity as well- with suitable commentary.

Thoughts on the Left

I have been thinking about the Left's stubborn refusal to ally themselves wwith their own country in most conflicts, and their equally stubborn refusal to support war when the national interests off their country are engaged. They seemingly only support the use of troops in earthquakes, tsunamis or other disaster relief or possibly in areas where the national intersts of the United States are undoubtedly not in play- like Clinton's Kosovo operation.

I think I have finally figured it out. Lefties are basically cowards. They are very good at ankle-biting, but they are not very good at leading or actually putting their country's best interests ahead of their own. Why is this? I belive it may be because so many of them came of age believing that they were the end-all of existence, and if they put their country's interests first and admitted that there are some things worth fighting for, they might actually have to go do the fighting, which might actually bring the risk of death. And these Lefties are all much too important to die, don't you know?

The Left's sense of self-importance, coupled with their physical cowardice, is the reason the lies at the core of their anti-war, anti-American stance, in my opinion. Of course, they have never given much thought to what might happen if these folks they have spent the last fifty or a hundred years encouraging and covertly supporting actually win. What would the US be like today if we have lost the Cold War? What would this country be like if the Islamofascists (regrettably cheered on by most of the supposedly "modeate" Muslim world) win? Where would these Lefties be if their sweetheart Castro in Cuba was El Presidente here? Have they considered that? Have you?

Anti-War Patriots?

I observe that since more than 2000 US soldiers have now lost their lives in the ongoing campaign in Iraq, the anti-war Left led by the American Friends Service Committee (ever noticed how Lefties like naming their groups 'Committees'- reminds them of the good old days of the Bolshevik Committees of Three, I guess) saw the need to commemorate the 2000th death with a party, which duly occurred on October 26, 2005.

Never mind that more US Marines died in roughly 30 days at Iwo Jima (more than three times as many- 6821 to be exact, with over 20000 injured) than soldiers and Marines combined have died in almost four years in Iraq. On a side note, one does wonder how the mainstream media, with their fixation on casualties, would have covered the month-long campaign of Iwo Jima, had today's media been in existence back then. Thank goodness that the media during World War II was actually pro-American, not anti-American like their modern counterparts. But then understanding context would require knowledge of REAL history- something most Lefties are incapable of.

At least two conservative blogs, little green footballs and Michelle Malkin noted the unseemly glee on the part of the Left at this event. Needing to maintain their pretense of "support the troops, not the war" justification, the Leftie blogs in response protested that these commemorations would actually be very solemn events- no glee allowed.

Well, well. A photographer rightly took these Leftie protestations with a large grain of salt, and decided to check out the San Francisco and Berkeley events. His results are quite shocking, as he clearly shows the glee and happiness pervading both events. So it would seem that despite their hypocritical protests to the contrary, the Left was indeed pleased at the 2000th death in Iraq. He notes that the MSM, although corporeally present, was too busy taking pictures of candles, and taping protest singer wannabes to notice the unholy glee, happiness and the party atmosphere on the part of most of those present.

I ask myself, why are the Left so pleased that 2000 Americans have died trying to build a free society where none existed before? Could it be that they are actually AGAINST freedom? Could it be that they actually LIKE it when Americans with whom they disagree die? Could it be they actually WANT their own country to lose this war- even though our Muslim extremist enemies would have much less tolerance for their little agenda than any single one of their countrymen whom they so despise? Just asking....

Michigan Anti-Patriotism

The state of Michigan has long been in the forefront of the anti-American movement. The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), one of the major anti-American leftwing groups of the 1960s, was hatched at least partly on its campus. At this point, we should advise the reader that the SDS, along with other groups of that era, were heavily Communist in nature, who felt more loyalty towards the Soviet Union than toward the United States. As Todd Gitlin, one of the SDS' leaders, admitted in his book The Sixties, a great number of the SDS members were those young men and women who were brought up by covertly Communist parents, who weer trained in organization and who were hoping to spread Communist rule to the United States. Therefore, I consider the SDS a brand of fifth-element subversion, if not outright treason, considering at least some of their financing also came from the USSR.

Today, Michigan's anti-patriotic nature was once again bared for public display. the Florida TV station WFTV's website WFTV.com reports that a woman was actually fired for missing work the day after seeing her husband of 22 years off to Iraq. This despite telling her employers that she might not be able to make it in to work the day after seeing him off, and there being apparently no problem with that initially by her employer. However, instead of calling her to come in, the company sent her a note telling her to collect her belongings- she had been summarily terminated. This seems outrageous to me on the face of things. Is there no patriotism left in Michigan?

JKF once famously said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but rather ask what you can do for your country." I doubt there are many Democrats or Leftists that still subscribe to that ideal. All in all, this is merely more evidence of the People's Republic of Michigan's lack of willingness to put Country ahead of Leftist Interests, I guess...

Hat tip to The Drudge Report.

Who's On Next?

I ingested the news of Harriet Miers' withdrawal from consideration as a Supreme Court justice reported here by Breitbart, with little regret. As much as I dislike the politics that forced her withdrawal, I also had serious reservations regarding her judicial qualifications.

I am not wedded to the idea that any Supreme Court nominee must be a judge, or even a lawyer. I think the past lawyerly actvism of our Supremes has gotten us into a very difficult situation, where we have justices looking outside the Constitution to justify their activist and unconstitutional decisions. However, Miers herself did not inspire much confidence on my part either- not just because of her lack of judicial experiecne, but becasue she is such an unknown. Stealth nominations have not worked out well for Republicans, and I would urge the President on his next nomination to go with someone who is a true conservative- a la the Ginsburg principle consistently utilized on the Left side of the aisle. Why are conservatives so afraid of what a bunch of ignorant and heavily biased media monkeys think? If presented well to the people, the media can do nothing more than snarl impotently- and last time I checked, conservatives outnumber liberals and lefties by a considerable percentage.

Mr. President, there are a number of well-qualified potential nominees out there- Eugene Volokh, Glenn Reynolds, Janice Brown, Michael Luttig, and others who momentarily escape my memory. Please select one of those, and let us begin removing the Court from its current status as Self-Appointed Arbiter of All Things to its traditional role of reserved originalism and strict constructionism. The Democrats and their rabid sponsors of the Left may not like it, but who has been winning elections- Republicans or Democrats? To the victor the spoils, I believe. You ran on a promise to fill any Court vacancies with strict contructionists. Fulfill that promise, Mr. President. Fulfill that promise!

Hat tip to Matt Drudge.

Happy Birthday, US Naval Airpower!

Brief post. Great significance. According to the Official Site of the US Navy, today is the eighty-fourth anniversary of the first successful launch of a seaplane using a compressed-air-powered catapult. This event occurred on October 26 in the year 1921. Exactly one year to the day later, Lieutenant Commander Godfrey de Chevalier made the first successful landing of a plane aboard a warship, landing safely aboard the USS Langley (CV1), while she was underway off Cape Henry, Virginia.

So why is this important? Well, because without naval airpower, we would have decidedly lost the Second World War and would proabbly be speaking either Russian or Japanese today. Or maybe we would be lucky and be speaking German. You liberal antiwar folks might want to think about that the next time before you mouth off one of your inane "War never solved anything" slogans.

I have a better slogan. Except for ending Slavery, Fascism, Nazism and Communism, war has never solved anything. The slogan is courtesy of the Protest Warriors. I highly recommend going to check out their site for more great pro-American signs, banners and news updates of their encounters with the ignorant Left.

Nude Nazi (Chinese) Girls in Hong Kong!

It seems that it is not all flowers and comradeship for the peace-loving Commies ruling in China. According to the Asian Sex Gazette, there has developed a recent craze for all things Nazi in the Land of the People's Republic.

Whereas our MSM Press and the Loony Left uses Nazi symbols and terms as derogatory references intended to shame Republicans (and which only serve to show their own unreality and hypocrisy- can anyone say Klan Kleagle Robert Byrd?), the Chinese apparently have decided that Nazification is a Good Thing!.

According to the ASG, Chinese in Hong Kong seem to see Nazis as very desireable beings to emulate- especially as their warlike vehicles were mostly made by Mercedes and Porsche- two brands in extreme demand amongst wealthy Chinese today as well, as is pointed out by the ASG report. However, the English-language media in Hong Kong, as ASG also points out, was apparently outraged by the publication. But so far no heads have rolled. On the other hand, this does say something about how differently Nazis are viewed in the East and the West, doesn't it?

In Japan, there are pornographic films frequently using Japanese Imperial soldiers and occasionally Nazis as the bad guys. These films usually involve many naked actresses being raped and killed- rarely with any retribution shown for the murderers. Now in China, we see that it seems to be OK to pose a nude Chinese hottie with Nazi regalia and a toy action figure made up to look like the German tank genius General Guderian.

Maybe the post-war re-education campaign needs to be re-visited? And I regret to say that our own Democratic Party might be well-advised to attend as well, seeing as how they appear to have a deep misunderstanding of the differences between Nazis and members of the Republican Party. And a lack of understanding regardin the power of rhetoric as well. Are you listening, MoveOn.org? Since the Left has little understanding or knowledge of history (other than their re-written version) I would remind these ignorant idiots that NAZI was short for National Socialist- and in their policies much more related to the Left than the Right. Oh, by the way, the Communists of whatever national origin are a brand of Socialists too. And who is responsible for most of the great massacres and genocides of the 20th Century? Hint: It isn't the Right. And certainly not the Republican Party, however much the Lefties wish it were. Just a thought....

Shashinshu Girls on the Web!

Well, when Walmart launched their blog, I thought I had seen everything in the blogosphere. However, thanks to an emailed tip from my good friend Mentok, I have now seen something even more entertaining. It appears that there is a blog entirely devoted to Japanese shashinshu girls!

To educate those unaware of this phenomenon, shashinshu girls are usually either young , attractive starlets beginning to break into the entertainment business, or established stars in need of more publicity!. They uncover themselves (though never entirely) for the weekly magazines and other less-reputable publications, and often publish photo books known as shashinshu (写真集), thus their designation as shashinshu girls.

The Cute Cosplay Angels blog appears to be a photoblog devoted entirely to these starlets, and is liberally covered with photographical evidence of these delectable young ladies in minimal attire. I have added it to my personal list of recommended blogs, though i would recommend caution before viewing. It is not precisely work- and girlfriend-safe, though entirely lacking in nudity. To paraphrase the great Joe Bob Briggs, "Much enjoyment, no breasts (except covered), shashinshu-girl-fu. Four stars. Joe Bob says check it out!"

Hat tip to Mentok, though he does not appear to have this on his blog as of yet.

10/27/05: 1044AM UPDATE: He does now...

Retief Revisited

I was reminded today about some of the classic Keith Laumer Retief of the CDT stories. To this reader's delight, at least some of them have been posted at Baen Books Online Library. And you can get at least one of the collections, Retief!, through Amazon.com.

For those unfamiliar with the series, it follows the career of Jame Retief, a (mostly) junior member of the CDT (Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne), who is linguistically talented, physically gifted, intelligent, has little patience for fools, and rarely follows procedures to get the job done. For all these perceived faults, he does usually manage to succeed in whatever mission was asigned him, though his superiors do their best to deny him credit wherever possible (and in some cases promote those who do their best to work against their own Corps best interests).

As one of the reviewers noted, Retief took on PC (the dreaded Political Correctness) long before most people even realized it was a problem. Keith Laumer created one of the most memorable and believable heroes in the pantheon of science fiction. And he managed to do it with a nice mix of humor and adventure, maintaining his tone, something few other writers were able to master. Hat tip to the Instapundit.