Clinton Democrats and the Credit Crunch

Friends and appointees of Bill should be taking the fall. How convenient they're now largely out of office.

Obama Supporter Calls for Joe the Plumber's Death

San Francisco radio automaton Karel calls for the death Joe the Plumber. It's a "progressive" jihad.

Yep, "progressive" Hope™ and Change™! It's all so tolerant and inclusive it gives me the willies.

How long before we hear "no man, no problem" as official Obama policy? It used to work in Chicago, you know.

Begging for Mercy

In Somalia, a 13-year-old girl (according to Amnesty International; the Islamists put her age at 23) who was gang-raped or, if you believe the Islamists, confessed to adultery, was recently stoned to death.

The following excerpted paragraphs are revolting, so skip them if you're sensitive. But do remember that this is a benefit of diversity and no culture is better than any other:

"Don't kill me, don't kill me," she said, according to the man who wanted to remain anonymous. A few minutes later, more than 50 men threw stones.

Numerous eye-witnesses say she was forced into a hole, buried up to her neck then pelted with stones until she died in front of more than 1,000 people last week.

The witness said people crowdinground to see the execution said it was"awful".

"People were saying this was not good for Sharia law, this was not good for human rights, this was not good for anything."

According to Amnesty International, nurses were sent to check during the stoning whether the victim was still alive. They removed her from the ground and declared that she was, before she was replaced so the stoning could continue.

Amnesty International made sure she was dead so the stoning by 50 men could continue. Now that's progressive! Islam is indeed a religion of peace, for the dead are the most peaceful among us.

Has Amnesty International facilitated such stonings before? Even though the girl/woman was dead, for how much longer did the stoning continue? Until there were no more rocks? Until the 50 mens' arms got tired?

Obamanomics

A taste of what's coming:

Detroit, Michigan

— The change we need? President-elect Barack Obama has just named Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm to his 17-member economic advisory panel.

>SNIP<

But Granholm has presided over the worst state economy in the United States since her election in 2003. Just last year, in the teeth of a gaping budget deficit and galloping unemployment now at 8.7 percent, she raised personal income taxes 17 percent. Her energy legislation passed this year further taxed Michigan ratepayers by hiking their utility bills an estimated 12 percent while gutting Michigan’s energy market deregulation so that major utilities can deal with the coming 10-percent RPS (not to mention modernizing old coal plants in the face of a predicted federal cap-and-trade plan).

Obamarama

I've got a new President, which is good. I don't know much about him, because the press focused on Palin's wardrobe, a bogus McCain scandal, and everything but Mr. Obama himself, which is bad. Coverage of Rezko, Wright, Khalidi, Ayers, "bankrupting the coal industry," "spreading the wealth," breaking his public financing pledge then accepting online donations with verification intentionally turned off, tours of the blighted areas where Mr. Obama "community organized" to no effect, his role in suing Citibank to lend to bad credit risks, his overwhelming number of gutless "present" votes--barely a word. The national press wanted Obama/Biden to win, and they succeeded. Of course, Bush did his part to help, but he will not be thanked for it.

I do enjoy watching the falling share prices of most media outlets. It would be refreshing to see entire journalism schools shut down because the students have come to realize the degree is worthless and quit entering them. Oh tenured boob who can do nothing, who has done nothing for decades, but scribble mental dribble, what will you do when your department goes under?

The Obama-Palin Ticket

Howard Stern asks people if they'll vote for Obama after attributing McCain policies and McCain's VP to Obama:

Unquestioning DNC party loyalty: don't ask, don't tell, don't think!

Al Franken (D), Asshole

I happened across this Star Tribune article about how alpha wanker Al Franken, currently running for a Senate seat, mocked the physical tic of a college student identified by other students as a conservative—the minority it's recommended to bash and offend—after the kid avoided having his picture taken with Franken. Franken also, as many leftist statists are wont to do, drilled him with a flow of aggressive accusative questions about the student's assumed views and models. Despite the abuse, the kid offered to shake Francine's hand; Franken refused. His minders probably aware of what an insufferable immature jerk Franken had just shown himself to be, he was hustled away. President of the Carleton College Democrats, Pablo Kenney, backs up the abused student's story.

If only video footage existed! See ya, Senate hopes. Then again, for many "liberal" Democrats, such footage would probably confirm their beliefs that Al is indeed "one of us."

Al Franken: Democrat, "funny" guy, ass****. This story reminds me of many "tolerant and liberal" people I've met, especially Ontarians and Left Coasters.

Crisis: Bringing the Newsroom Home

On January 13, 2008, the New York Times reported on 121 cases of veterans returning to civilian life but "bringing the battlefield home": committing or being charged for murder. When the Weekly Standard employed the requisite context that the New York Times did not, the results indicated that "the actual homicide rate among civilians is higher in similar demographic groups":

The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and other veterans’ advocacy groups are absolutely correct that not merely “many” but the vast majority of veterans not only remain completely law-abiding but go on to lead stable and productive personal, professional, and civic lives. Assuming 121 homicide cases in relation to 749,932 total discharges through 2007, 99.98 percent of all discharged Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have not committed or been charged with homicide.

And assuming 121 cases and 749,932 total discharges, the homicide offending rate for the discharged veterans would be 16.1 per 100,000. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has demographic data aplenty on homicide offending rates. For instance, in 2005, for white males aged 18-24, the rate was about 20 per 100,000. The Times opined that 121 was the “minimum” number, even as it counted veterans charged but not convicted with veterans tried and found guilty. Doubling the number to 242 would double the rate to 32.2 per 100,000.

Far more worrisome is the trend of Journalists Gone Wild, an article apparently as thoroughly researched as that of the New York Times: to wit, America's media misanthropes are bringing home the stress of speaking questionable truth to power from the safety of the newsroom, where they become corrupted, robbing banks, beating wives, molesting children, stealing property, and taking lives—committing hundreds of crimes. It is a crisis!

Of course, why worry about any of that when Dutch e-tailers' product displays run amok (let video content load). If not contained in time, such threats to global e-businesses will become more than a crisis, they'll become super-duper crises!

Stateless Kuwaitis: "Bidun"

Many moons ago I considered going to work in Kuwait. According to Refugees International, some while ago the Islamic emirate rather arbitrarily classified a portion of its inhabitants, mainly the nomadic sorts, as bidun, stateless. They were given passports, different in color from those of "real" Kuwaitis', but thrown out of government jobs, not allowed to register their births, etc. In short, they became second-class citizens despite being brother Muslims, having been born in the country, having lineage their going back probably hundreds of years.

It's said that Kuwait is a progressive, a liberal, Muslim nation, but stories from some bidun might persuade you to believe otherwise. And then there's that whole deal about not being let in (or, depending on how useful you are to the country, how laboriously) if your passport carries proof of a visit to Israel. Does Kuwait also require foreign workers prove their religious affiliation (as Saudi Arabia does), ban pork products, ban non-Islamic religious texts, disallow foreigners' purchasing land or building of religious facilities?

Ralph Nader Sues the DNC

With thanks to the Instapundit, this report of Nader turning to the pernicious embrace of lawyers gave me an early morning chuckle, especially with Nader "speaking truth to power," as in:

"The Democratic Party is going after anyone who presents a credible challenge to their monopoly over their perceived voters," Nader said in a statement. "This lawsuit was filed to help advance a free and open electoral process for all candidates and voters. Candidate rights and voter rights nourish each other for more voices, choices, and a more open and competitive democracy."
Though I am no fan of Nader (which has nothing to do with his scurrilous attack against the Corsair), I am glad he's attempting to stick it to the DNC for their thuggery. Of course, depending on how the Ron Paul "r-love-ution" turns out, we might see Ron Paul expressing something similar in the form of litigious love projected as a fissile legal epistle of similar content.

Though I doubt it, there is a possibility that Ron Paul will be to Gillian what Ralph Nader was to the Goracle.

YearlyKos Pickup Lines (Some Explicit)

The big hullabaloo that is YearlyKos seems increasingly to attract attention from Democrats in (imaginary) power and various bloggers who are "pro-regressive" or not. Even though its attendees are not diverse, a point that causes sensitive reactions (read through the comments) among its enthusiasts, there seems to be great diversity in how members express their uniform hatred of President Bush, the US military, Israel, and more. I've heard that there is, as well, a highly diverse range of pickup lines among "Kossacks" although all show a remarkable conformity in the themes used to initiate contact with the opposite sex, when it can be found. Some samples follow:

1. What say you and me ditch this and really stick it to Bush, somewhere private?
2. I'll let you net my root any time.
3. One night with me and you'll be moaning and breathing so hard you'll need carbon offsets from Al Gore.
4. Has anyone ever told you how much you look like Nancy (Pelosi)/Rigoberta Menchú/Cindy Sheehan/Medea Benjamin/one of Castro's women/Nexhmije Hoxha?
5. How'd you like to engage in some highly localized global warming?
6. If I were a neocon/Zionist/Bushie/Christian, you wouldn't need to yell about screwing me, 'cause I'll let you do it.
7. You know Condoleeza? I've been called the Condom-pleaser.
8. Hi, my name's Karl, and I wanna Rove all over you.
9. I've got a Dick, and you've got a Bush, so let's get exploiting!
10. I'm not an Iraqi, but if you let me, I-raq-U.
11. If it weren't for the vast right-wing conspiracy, I would never have found a lady as perfect as you.
12. Bushitler has nothing on the inside job I'll give you, if you let me.
13. To tell the truth, I'm a conservative. How about coming with me to see how the Other Half lives?
14. If you do me, I'll tell Kos about it in my Diary.
15. How'd you like to make it with a Kos Diarist?
16. You can question my patriotism all you like if you just climb my flagpole.
17. Forget G-spots: Lemme stoke your G-had!
18. Bag me and you've only got 71 more virgins to go.
19. Democratic Underground is more hard-core than this stuff. Come with me and we can explore my Democratic Underpants.
20. My parents' house is just 10 minutes down the street. My dad's away on business and I can call my mom to have her go shopping for me. We'd have the whole house to ourselves for about two hours. Whattaya say?

John Edwards

What a money-grubbing, doctor-screwing, patients'-health-care-eradicating, junk-science-exploiting scumbag trial lawyer.

Given Edwards' success in causing medical professionals to flee obstetrics after ruining their careers and reputations, I'd be reluctant to be his or his wife's doctor, because he'd probably sue me in the blink of an eye, even if I did nothing wrong.

Edwards keeps blowing on about two Americas, and he's right: One where doctors still exist, and one where they're packing up and leaving, thanks in part to Edwards.

British Animal Rights Performance Artist Eats Corgi

A recent news article documents a "performance artist," which is a euphemism for "a**hole," named Mark McGowan who feels the British royal family is abusing its critters. At first, he seems almost, almost, a reasonable sort, though the whiff of activist lunacy is noticeable:

"We love our animals in Britain," McGowan told AP Television News. "Why is it then that we then allow people — especially people who are supposed to be ambassadors for this country — to treat animals with such disrespect?"

So McGowan decides he must protest the royals' animal abuse by eating a corgi, the Queen's favorite breed of dog. If you only caught the parts of the blurb, it might remind you of a sterling Monty Python sketch in which a hunter on the veldt says, "I love animals. That's why I track' em down and kill 'em." However, McGowan claims to have eaten pre-expired corgi, spiced to cover up the taste and smell of potentially putrid flesh:

To make the corgi more palatable, it was mixed with apple, onion and seasoning, turned into meat balls, and served with salad.

McGowan said the corgi he consumed had died recently at a breeding farm and had not been killed for the purposes of the protest. He did not say how the dog had died.

"I ate three lumps of it. But I spat two of them out, so I really ate one and a half of them," McGowan said.

Not eating the whole dead corgi he so disrespectfully ground up, which apparently no other animal rights activists found offensive. Very sensitive and caring of him. Surely he'd never abuse anything, except rational thought and public decency.

Ain't No Lie There Be Truthers in Berserkeley

So I’m looking at the list of genii who have signed on to the ae911truth.org, architects and engineers dedicated to “9-11 truth.” Other than their being collectively nuts, I find it unsurprising that a significant number of the member architects are from Berkeley, California, long festering as a hotbed of radical Leftism. Some years ago my sister, on the Left Coast for vacation, brought me back a People’s Republic of Berkeley shirt. This was after the gulag, after Pol Pot, after Red Terror in Ethiopia, after Mao, after Lenin, after Stalin, after Che, after tens of millions killed for nothing, when people still thought (and still think) a People’s Republic is something to aspire to.

Not that I’d ever consider living in Berkeley—I’ve heard too many ugly stories of the filth on the campus, in-your-face nutjobs, high prices, tenured radicals, and power politics—but were I to do so, I wouldn’t want a house built by someone who thinks "9-11 was an inside job."

Al Qaeda Torture Manual

Recently I was led to an alleged Al Qaeda torture manual (graphic pictures—beware!) liberated by US forces from a house in Iraq. I don’t know much about the credibility of The Smoking Gun, but I’ve seen it referred to in various online sources.

Whether the source is credible or not, pictures from the manual’s illustrated pages, such as using a clothes iron on some poor victim, are made even more insidious by the fact that almost every torturer is smiling: The Al Qaeda goons are loving what they’re doing, and they want the readers to share the Islamic zealot’s love; my guess is there is also a macabre psychological tactic too: Surely the victim’s condition will be worsened (and his/her will more quickly broken) by a smiling torturer, some so evil they enjoy what they’re doing, someone confident in their ability to torture with impunity.

Michael Moore calls the Muslims reading this manual “freedom fighters,” and many “progressives” agree. It seems that, to the fans of "freedom fighters," putting Iraqis in sexually humiliating positions is much worse than gouging out their eyes, drilling through their hands, or burning their torsos with clothing irons. Personally, I see elitist multicultural nonsense and paternalistic racism at work: It’s OK if those backward ethnic types do it, because it’s part of their culture, so who are we to judge? (lowering voice) Besides, they don’t know any better anyway? Snicker.

Kidnapping for the Cause

I just read an account of Nazis stealing children with the potential to be "Germanized" for the Aryan project.

This reminds me of Islamists kidnapping children to convert them. Muslims also have used alms to entice people to convert, which the Nazis probably did not bother with. I've heard this practice shows a keen sense of economics, with animists in Africa being bribed with far less than Westerners in the Gulf states.

Some Reds Not Better Dead

Apparently installed by the reinvading Soviets in 1956, Hungary's longest oppressing Commie tyrant, Janos Kadar, has had his final resting place disturbed by a proletarian or two, who made off with his skull, some bones, and his wife's ashes. Graffiti denouncing him as a murderer was left behind.

In Estonia, the extinct Soviet Empire still keeps killing. Rioting following Estonia's relocation of a Soviet war memorial, rightly seen by ethnic Estonians as a malingering remnant of a bloody colonial power, has killed one and injured many more.

Some Things That Are Just Plain Wrong

Resurrecting a non-negative image of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the ruthless bastard who set up the Soviet Cheka, which became the KGB.

Believing cell phone viruses can kill you. That this is happening in Muslim countries is no surprise. That in more prosperous and modern Saudi Arabia people would fear geting AIDS from Israeli melons is perhaps even more wrong and illuminating.

NHK "Expert" on US Gun Culture

Guns can be had in Japan, but they are very difficult to get hold of. Any encounter with the law here permanently ends your ability to mess with guns. Generally only a few hunters, probably thoroughly vetted, can get licenses to carry guns. I don't know whether they can store guns in their homes or if they have to be kept locked up elsewhere. However, the end result is that few guns are floating around. Bear in mind that this is all anecdotal--sorry.

Beware: a rant will commence below, one of the few I will post here.

The shooting at Virginia Tech has dominated Japanese news; it is getting more coverage than the shooting today of the mayor of Nagasaki (here in "gun-free" Japan). NHK just had an "expert" on US gun culture on. Ekisupaato-san said that the reason people still have guns in America is twofold: (1) the level of mistrust is so high that they feel they need them and (2) they "blindly" believe a gun is the only way to deal with life-threatening violence. He was followed by Mrs. Hatori, whose son was killed in New Orleans when he went to the wrong house by mistake for a Halloween party and didn't understand "Freeze!" Then came footage from "Bowling for Columbine," by Michael Moore, another "expert," one I'll ignore.

The pontificating NHK "expert" is apparently so well-versed in America gun culture that he doesn't bother to talk (or know?) about the 2nd Amendment and why it was enshrined in the Constitution (Penn & Teller can tell you more). Mrs. Hatori says she still can't understand why Americans have guns after all her efforts to have them banned (Again, that pesky U.S. Constitution, dagnabbit. Why can't the Americans just get rid of that thing?). I'm sorry for her great personal loss, but I wonder what she thinks about foreigners who come to Japan to urge Japanese to change deep-seated cultural practices and customs that are "wrong."

Let's look at those two points from the NHK "expert" again. As for mistrust, consider this excerpt from the Pew Research Center report, "Americans and Social Trust: Who, Where and Why"),

An International Perspective
The question of what explains social trust - and why certain societies are more trusting than others - has long fascinated social scientists. Many theories have been advanced - personal optimism; voluntary associations; homogeneous societies; equal opportunities; honest governments - but over the years, not all have stood up to empirical scrutiny. Cross-national surveys have found that the highest levels of social trust are in the homogeneous, egalitarian, well-to-do countries of Scandinavia, while the lowest levels of trust tend to be found in South America, Africa and parts of Asia. In these multi-national comparative surveys, the U.S. population ranks in the upper middle range of trust.3

So, in short, Mr. Expert is essentially wrong about US mistrust. It is probably lower than in Japan, but it is not remarkably low, as he suggests (without any figures, sources, etc.). No surprise there, especially since it fits so well with the stereotype of Americans being nasty soulless capitalists constantly screwing and exploiting each other 24/7/365 since 1776.

As for Americans "blindly" believing they can protect themselves with guns, what is the alternative? To wait for the police to show up in a couple of minutes, after you've been assaulted, if at all? What does Mr. Expert think one should do, reason with the attacker? Give the attacker what he wants, even if it's your own head? Never will I understand why some people are terrified that others might be willing (and able) to defend themselves. Why do people want to deprive others of the right to defend themselves?

What percentage of people who hate and fear guns do so because they have never handled or been around guns (like why some people hate or fear foreigners, homosexuals, Christians, gaijin, etc.)?

Looking to the Future: Incarcerating TB Patients
What else are people to do with very communicable drug-resistant illnesses? Forced isolation is creepy, but what are the alternatives? I can see the concern about someone intentionally infecting themselves with such an illness then visiting NYC, London, Paris, wherever to ride public transit purposely to cough and infect "infidels," "little Eichmanns," "neo-cons," or "Gaia rapists."

Like illegally introducing into New Zealand, with apparent ease, a lethal virus that decimates rabbits. Only humans could be targeted next in the future.

Yikes!