2008, the year in photographs (part 3 of 3)

One of 40

"This sequence of 12 frames was taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft over a span of about 45 minutes on March 12, 2008. In that brief time, Cassini covered almost 40,000 kilometers in its approach to a flyby encounter with Enceladus, one of the moons of Saturn. The overexposure and smearing of the images gives a hint of the raw speed involved - 14.4 km/sec (or 32,211 mph). Shortly after this sequence, at its closest, Cassini approached within 52 km (32.3 miles) of the surface of Enceladus. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)"

Click here or image for complete set of 40 pictures (and link to part two).

The Worst Climate Predictions of 2008

"But sunspots had been predicting major cooling since 2000, and global temperatures turned downward in early 2007. The sunspots have had a 79 percent correlation with the earth’s thermometers since 1860. Today’s temperatures are about on a par with 1940. For 2008, the Almanac hired a new climatologist, Joe D’Aleo, who says the declining sunspots and the cool phase of the Pacific Ocean predict 25-30 years of cooler temperatures for the planet."

It's like a cycle or something!

And yet to play out, let’s also not forget Al Gore’s 2008 prediction: “Entire north polar ice cap will be gone in 5 years”

TY FA

Mandatory Minimum Wage Increases Cost Jobs

But common sense already told you that one, right?

“Decades of economic research by leading economists at major universities is consistent with what we’re seeing in Missouri: increased job loss follows mandated wage hikes, particularly among the least skilled and least educated workers,” said Kristen Lopez Eastlick, senior economic analyst for the Employment Policies Institute. “It doesn’t take an economic expert to see the pitfalls with automatic wage hikes. If government is mandating businesses increase their labor costs regardless of skill levels or productivity, the result is going to be lost jobs - especially at a time when small businesses are struggling in a weak economy.”

It's the same common sense that eludes the clueless congress critters & slavish state legislators.

Israel rejects truce?

Uh, you can't reject something that was never offered.

And you can't spell 'unethical' without U.N.

But you could never tell any of that from the MSM.

Perception is reality...

...although Blago hopes that will change.

Updated: Related - Obama Report Raises Questions: How Many Calls Did Emanuel Make to Blagojevich?

"Former federal prosecutor Pat Trueman, however, said Craig’s staff investigation doesn’t really answer anything -- including whether Obama himself had talked with Blagojevich.

The report has all the markings of a “cover yourself” investigation, he said.

“The internal report by the Obama staff is no more valuable from a prosecutor’s point of view than an internal report by the governor himself,” Trueman told CNSNews.com.

“You cannot rely on the statements because they are not sworn statements, they are not in a grand jury setting, where you would have sworn statements, and so they are not really very valuable.”

Trueman, a former Justice Department attorney whose criminal investigations have helped put major pornography kingpins behind bars, said the reporter’s question is key -- Was it one call or was it two?"

Or more? But it's probably all moot since an actual quid pro quo crime never took place. The prosecutor can only hope to build a 'conspiracy to commit' case.

And from there it will become a bookie bet on how deeply Obama's lap dog media will bury its head in his crotch.

As U.S. Succeeds In Iraq, Network TV Pulls the Plug

Google News search returned 16,480 results for "Bush shoe".
Google News search returned 3,077 results for "Iraq reconstruction".

"So right on cue, Monday's New York Times reports that ABC, CBS and NBC have all pulled their full time reporters from Iraq. According to correspondent Brian Stelter, the lack of violence means the networks are less interested in the Iraq story: "Representatives for the networks emphasized that they would continue to cover the war and said the staff adjustments reflected the evolution of the conflict in Iraq from a story primarily about violence to one about reconstruction and politics."

If it doesn't bash Bush, crickets chirp.

Wartime in Gaza: The worst anti-Israel charges you'll hear

"Herewith the first in a two-part guide to the 10 most gratuitous, least productive, most resolutely ingenuous claims likely to be hurled in an effort to attack Israel.

The first five are arguments of the anti-Israel left, claims which are, curiously, as tired as they are unflagging."

For context, Hamas, along with a half-dozen other Arab/Islamic governments in the Mid-East, have publicly sworn, time & time again, to wage a never ending assault to bring about Israel's destruction. And the U.N. is complicit in this institutionalized Jew extermination.

Israel Damned if They Do, But Dead if They Don't

After weeks of hundreds of Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel, and despite warnings from Israeli Prime Minister to "Stop it. We are stronger", Israel has run out of patience with the brutal islamist government sworn to Israel's destruction.

But the self-righteous, bigoted 'activists' of the world don't care about dead Jews, only dead islamic terrorists.

From Ralph Peters of the New York Post. In its entirety:

"DEAD Jews aren't news, but killing terrorists outrages global activists. On Saturday, Israel struck back powerfully against its tormentors. Now Israel's the villain. Again.

How long will it be until the UN General Assembly passes a resolution creating an international Holocaust Appreciation Day?

Israel's airstrikes against confirmed Hamas terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip were overdue, discriminating and skillful. So far, this retaliatory campaign has been a superb example of how to employ postmodern airpower.

Instead of bombing empty buildings in the dead of night in the hope of convincing bloodthirsty monsters to become peace-loving floral arrangers - the US Air Force version of "Shock and Awe" - the Israeli Defense Force aimed to kill terrorists.

Israel's attack aircraft appear to have accomplished that part of the mission. As I write, some 300 terrorist dead have been reported in Gaza, while the propaganda-savvy information office of Hamas has strug- gled to prove that 20 civilians died.

Given the fact that Hamas adheres to the terrorist practice of locating command sites, arsenals and training facilities in heavily populated areas, the results suggest that the IDF - supported by first-rate intelligence work - may have executed the most accurate wave of airstrikes in history, with a 15-to-1 terrorist-to-civilian kill ratio.

The bad news is that it still won't be enough. While Israel has delivered a painful blow against Hamas, it's still not a paralyzing hit. The only way to neuter such a terror threat - even temporarily - is to go in on the ground and scour every room, basement and underground tunnel in a region.

That would mean high Israeli casualties and, of course, condemnation of Israel's self-defense efforts by every self-righteous, corrupt and bigoted organization and government on earth, from Turtle Bay to Tehran.

What have been Israel's "crimes?" Not "stealing Palestinian land," but making that land productive, while exposing the incompetence and sloth of Arab culture.

Israel's crime isn't striking back at terror, but demonstrating, year after year, that a country in the Middle East can be governed without resort to terror. Israel's crime hasn't been denying Arab rights, but insisting on human rights for women and minorities.

Israel's crime has been making democracy work where tyranny prevailed for 5,000 years. Israel's crime has been survival against overwhelming odds, while legions of Arab nationalists, Islamist extremists and Western leftists want every Jew dead.

But Israel's greatest crime was to expose the global cult of victimhood, to prove that hard work, fortitude and courage could overcome even history's grimmest disaster.

Was it a crime to hand Gaza back to Palestinian authorities, to give peace a chance? Look what Israel received in return for trading land for peace.

Let us never forget the fundamental truth that, while Israel longs to live in peace with its neighbors, those neighbors openly profess the desire to eliminate Israel and exterminate its people.

Indeed, Arab and regional jealousy toward Israel is so all-consuming, so necessary to excuse the Arab art of failure, that even these judicious airstrikes will hardly make a dent in the terrorist threat.

Unless Israel sends in ground forces for the long haul - and thousands of IDF reservists are being mobilized - there will be, at best, a temporary respite from terror attacks. Even a new occupation of Gaza would not fully solve the problem.

A crucial point about interfaith and interethnic conflicts that we sheltered Americans refuse to understand is that, all too often, there's just no good solution - and not even a bad solution, short of acts of barbarism.

It's a rare conflict that results in an enduring peace. Unintended consequences abound. At times, you fight just to buy time, to gain breathing space - or merely to frustrate an enemy's designs for a limited period.

That's the situation Israel faces: No hope of an ultimate victory, but a constant fight to survive. Enemies who believe their god ordains their actions can't be placated. For faith-fueled terrorists, such as the core members of Hamas, the struggle with Israel's a zero-sum game. Compromise is, at most, an expedient tool, never an acceptable end state.

What will we see in the coming days? Much depends on Israel's resolve. The most probable scenario is that Hamas will continue launching terror rockets for a few weeks to salve its wounded vanity and maintain the image of "resistance," but will ultimately reduce its attacks against Israel - while it rebuilds its cadres and restocks its arsenal.

Israel will have bought time, not peace.

What might Israel have done better? It's essential to take out the top terrorist leaders. But Israel's government remains reluctant to target the cowardly Hamas leaders hiding in Damascus - or even the top terrorists remaining in Gaza.

For terrorist bosses, the rank-and-file are disposable and replaceable. You can't just kill the gunmen. You have to kill the names.

We may sympathize with the average Palestinian family, exploited by generations of corrupt leaders and now caught in yet another round of violence. But let us never forget that Israel hasn't fired thousands of blind rockets into Palestinian cities, that Israeli suicide bombers don't attack Arab restaurants and bus stops, and that Israel seeks to avoid harming civilians - while Hamas seeks to kill as many civilians as possible.

In a world where there are no good answers, Israel just answered as best it could. The world's response? "How dare Jews defend themselves."

Humanity doesn't progress. It just changes clothes."

Related: speaking of "superb example of how to employ postmodern airpower", the IAF uses new, bunker buster smart bomb.

"The missile, called GBU-39, was developed in recent years by the US as a small-diameter bomb for low-cost, high-precision and low collateral damage strikes.

The GPS-guided GBU-39 is said to be one of the most accurate bombs in the world. The 113-kg. bomb has the same penetration capabilities as a normal 900-kg. bomb, although it has only 22.7 kg. of explosives. At just 1.75 meters long, its small size increases the number of bombs an aircraft can carry and the number of targets it can attack in a sortie."

Made in the good ol' U.S. of A. Of course.

BTW, the IDF called Palestinian's cellular phones and landlines with warnings to evacuate before the bombs came down. I doubt any islamist homicide bomber has afforded the Israelis the same courtesy.

TY JR

Iran hangs ten on Christmas Eve

"While Mahmoud Ahmadinejad got a television platform in the UK to pass along a propaganda message to the West on how to celebrate a holiday his nation abhors, the Iranians celebrated by playing Christmas Tree with ten prisoners:..."

An obama-esque blackout.

The Twelve Days of Global Warming

Pied piper fear mongering & big bucks. A new millennium classic.



But, wait. There's more!

2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved.

"Polar bears will be fine after all."

40 Years Ago: Remember the Crew of U.S.S. Pueblo

"The USS PUEBLO was a U. S. Navy vessel sent on an intelligence mission off the coast of North Korea. On January 23, 1968, the USS PUEBLO was attacked by North Korean naval vessels and MiG jets. One man was killed and several were wounded. The Eighty-two surviving crew members were captured and held prisoner for 11 months."

The crew were released from their North Korean captivity on December 23rd, 1968. The following day, Christmas Eve, Apollo 8 orbited the moon. There were far more tragedies than triumphs in that tumultuous year - events which have all but erased the Pueblo & her crew from memory.

The Pueblo incident shadows U.S. / Nork relations today.

TY OL

"And a Little Child shall Explain Big Bailouts...

I'm pretty sure congress critters can read.

(click to enlarge)

TY TTAC via DU

The Importance of Being Transparently Hypocritical

"At least we know where their values lie."

The year 2008 in photographs (part 1 of 3)

40 pictures in part one.

TY Boortz

Santa Clauses From Around The World

In pictures. Of course.

Away In a Test Tube

Dr. Frankenstein, call your office.

BCB has a disturbing story of amateur scientists in their garage with homemade lab equipment and Google trying to create new life forms through genetic engineering.

The bio-hazards and ethical implications are self-evident.

Yes, but they still call it an 'after Christmas Sale'.

Go figure.

"One of the sillier stunts this year was pulled by Amazon.com. As Mark Steyn relates on National Review Online, Amazon invited customers to take part in their “Twelve Days of Holiday” sale. When he complained, Amazon changed the campaign back to “Twelve Days of Christmas.”

On radio host Michael Graham’s website, parents report that their kids’ teachers are inviting them to sing “The Twelve Days of Winter,” and “We Wish You a Happy Holiday.” Graham himself is mocking efforts to banish the “C” word by holding a contest in which people offer their favorite Christmas song butchery. One favorite: “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Thursday.”

Meanwhile, city leaders are going all out to yank the Christ child out of any and all Christmas events. Pittsburgh turned its annual Christmas tree lighting celebration into “Light Up Night.” And the people of Forks, Washington, held a “Twinkle Light” parade, complete with the fat, jolly guy who, not long ago, was linked to a certain Christian holy day."

These PC nitwits are a perverse parody of themselves. Pathetically intolerant of what they claim to tolerate - diversity.

Happy Pagan Festival at the Winter Solstice with Intolerance For Those Entranced with Religious Superstition, and to All, Good Home Owners Insurance when Illuminating Flammable Shrubs Erected Indoors!

But take heart, believers in the reason for the season. This suppression is nothing new.

Merry Christmas!

Marksman Santa.

What. You thought maybe Rudolph could fend off a pack of wolves by himself?!

And, no. That's not Sarah driving the sleigh.

6 Degrees of Name That Party!

Party Affiliation of Mother of Mother of Child of Son of Arrestee Highly Relevant?

YES! Because she's a Republican. Of course.

Democrats. Eh. Not so much.

Penn Jillette Believes His Own Bvllsh1t

Penn Jillette. Magician. Illusionist. Of Penn & Teller fame.

Vocal atheist. Obnoxious. Even ripped Mother Theresa after her death.

He's a talented illusionist, but a lousy philosopher (perhaps the two are related (?), but I digress...).

The Anchoress has a post about Jillette's latest youtube screed. She's much too gracious & genteel to rebuke Jillette's condescending babble cloaked in a backhanded compliment, so it's up to moi to call BVLLSH1T!

Says Jillette, “How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible, and not tell them that?”

I've heard this non-believer accusation before. It's a specious argument. More worthy & virulent atheists - such as Bertrand Russell & Adolf Eichmann (on his way to the gallows) - have tried it and failed. Miserably. It's only success is to betray the accuser's stunning ignorance.

The answer to such condescending babble is 'The Body of Christ.'

Like your own body, not every part is designed for every work. IE: the ears cannot do the work of the hands, etc. Likewise, not every mouth can preach, nor every arm carry, etc.

If the Church was fortressed behind monastic walls in cloistered silence for 2,000 years, then I would entertain the non-believers slings & arrows, and grant them their ignorance. But the Church, on whole, is, and has been, faithful to The Great Commission - "Go into all the World and preach the Gospel (if necessary, use words)".

Jesus Christ and His Gospel is the most recognizable manifestation and pronouncement in the history of the entire world.

And either in spite of, or because of that fact, in much of the modern world Christians are the mark of scorn and ridicule for not embracing the Secularist's 'freedom from religion' by keeping Faith out of ____ (fill in the blank). The ACLU works OT to accomplish that goal, yet the bloodlust is still not complete since the libs are currently livid at Obama's choice of inaugural pastor Rick Warren. (I've my own objections to convoluted Warren, but that's another post)

The Good News is not top secret, and it's turned the world up side down: England's abolitionist William Wilberforce; India's compassionate, Christ-like Mother Theresa; Global Prison Fellowship's Chuck Colson; et al. There's a church on nearly every corner in the U.S. of A. and world wide Christian radio broadcasts for those who have ears to hear.

I wonder when the last time Mr. Jillette went to a Billy Graham Crusade?

Jillette is a disingenuous soul. He needs to leave philosophy to the professionals, and best stick to what he's good at on stage - steal; ditch; simulation; and misdirection.

Baghdad celebrates first public Christmas

I blame George Bush.

"Many of the people attending the Christmas celebration appear to be Muslims, with women wearing head scarves. Suad Mahmoud, holding her 16-month-old daughter, Sara, tells me she is indeed Muslim, but she's very happy to be here. "My mother's birthday also is this month, so we celebrate all occasions," she says, "especially in this lovely month of Christmas and New Year."

Father Saad Sirop Hanna, a Chaldean Christian priest, is here too. He was kidnapped by militants in 2006 and held for 28 days. He knows firsthand how difficult the lot of Christians in Iraq is but, he tells me, "We are just attesting that things are changing in Baghdad, slowly, but we hope that this change actually is real. We will wait for the future to tell us the truth about this."

He just returned from Rome. "I came back to Iraq because I believe that we can live here," he says. "I have so many [Muslim] friends and we are so happy they started to think about things from another point of view and we want to help them."

The Christmas celebration has tables loaded with cookies and cakes. Families fill plates and chat in the warm winter sun. Santa balloons hang from trees. An artist uses oil paint to create a portrait of Jesus."

TY HA Link Thingy.

Stealth Jihad in America

Robert Spencer reveals how radical Islam is quietly advancing in the U.S.

"A stated goal of the book is to expose the efforts of Islamic radicals to impose Islamic Sharia law in the West. Given that they have yet to realize that goal, this may seem like an exercise in overreach. But in fact Spencer uncovers disturbing evidence that unreasonable accommodations are being made to Muslim religious practices and beliefs. It’s bad enough that Minnesota’s Muslim cabdrivers refused service to some 5,400 passengers for the offense of carrying alcohol, or that the Indianapolis airport in 2007 installed foot baths to accommodate Muslim prayer, or that at least nine universities now have Muslim-only prayer rooms. Worse is that such flagrantly preferential treatment for Islam has been justified by everyone from government authorities to academics and journalists as a victory for "religious freedom."

Related: UN Passes Islamic Anti-Defamation of Religion Measure.

Don't be fooled by the name. It's a deceptive resolution championed by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and seeks to silence criticism of Islam. In short: it subverts freedom of conscience for all people to worship as they please.

"The Becket Fund earlier made a submission to the world body arguing that any attempt to treat religious discrimination in the same way as racial discrimination could result in “the suppression of peaceful, but controversial, discussions of truth claims about and within religions.”

The Becket Fund, and other critics of the OIC push, note that in some of the Islamic countries leading the campaign – notably Pakistan, Egypt and Iran – blasphemy laws target those who challenge the religious viewpoints approved by the state. Some also outlaw conversions from Islam to other faiths.

To these critics, outlawing “religious defamation” at the U.N. would not only legitimize those regimes’ behavior but could lead eventually to similar restrictions on free expression in non-Islamic countries as well.

“The ‘defamation of religions’ resolution is a direct violation of the United Nation’s mandate to protect religious freedom, as peaceful religious speech – a manifestation of belief – will be silenced as a result of it,” Wu said.

“We are deeply disappointed that the U.N. has given cover to oppressive governments to persecute dissenters. Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan, Christians in Orissa, India, and Bahais in Iran have one more reason to fear for their lives as the U.N. lends legitimacy to the criminalization of their peaceful speech. States have no place determining what is and is not blasphemy,” she added.

“Defenders of free speech take some consolation in the increased votes for our cause,” Hillel Neuer, executive director of the human rights watchdog UN Watch, said Thursday. "But the adoption of yet another totalitarian text is a stark reminder that human rights at the U.N. is under assault."

Thursday’s vote passed by a margin of 86-53, with 42 countries abstaining. Like most things the U.N. does, the resolution is impotent, and carries no force of law behind it, but it does raise an alarming red flag of intent..

52 MPG, 190 HP, Seats 5. $25,000

The Ford Fusion Hybrid. Available in 2010.

Surber says, "No wonder Ford said no thanks on the bailout."

Undersea Cables Cut; 14 Countries Lose Web

Fra-gee-lay, to be sure.

"A France Telecom report listed 14 countries affected by the current problem. The Maldives are 100 percent down, followed by India, which has 82 percent disruption. Qatar, Djibouti and the United Arab Emirates were the next most widely affected areas with about 70 percent service interrupted. Disruptions for Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan range from 51 percent to 55 percent."

The conspiracy theorists are in full foil hat mode, but initial investigations claim that at least one of the cuts was caused by a ship's anchor. The official word from the industry is 'we don't know'.

"The International Cable Protection Committee, an association of submarine cable operators, said on its website it was aware of multiple submarine cable failures affecting Internet speeds on some routes but did not know what had caused the problem."

Others speculate that seismic activity in the Mediterranean caused at least one break. As a result, many phone connections are out between the Mid-East and Europe, but still available to the U.S. of A.

"Officials with AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications, the two largest U.S.-based carriers, said some customers in the Middle East had lost all service, while others were experiencing partial disruptions on Internet connections."

Re-routing signals is marginal at best, and there's no word on how long repairs will take to restore service.

Mark Felt, Watergate's 'Deep Throat', Dies at 95

A report from, where else? The WaPo:

"He secretly guided Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward as he and his colleague Carl Bernstein pursued the story of the 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Committee's headquarters at the Watergate office buildings and later revelations of the Nixon administration's campaign of spying and sabotage against its perceived political enemies."

Six degrees of Hollywood:

"Felt insisted on remaining completely anonymous, or on "deep background." A Post editor dubbed him "Deep Throat," a bit of wordplay based on the title of a pornographic movie of the time. The source's existence, but not his identity, became known in Woodward and Bernstein's 1974 book, "All the President's Men," and in the subsequent movie version, in which actor Hal Holbrook played the charismatic but shadowy source."

Just released this month is Ron Howard’s new film, Frost/Nixon, a re-examination about the only U.S. president to resign from office.

Six degrees of Obama:

"Although Deep Throat was a hero to the counterculture, civil rights advocates and Nixon's opponents, Felt was no friend to the political left.

In 1980, he was convicted of approving illegal "black bag" break-ins against of the families and friends of Weather Underground radicals. He was later pardoned by President Ronald Reagan."

Bill Ayers and wife B. Dohrn were/are the de facto head of the Weather Underground, and well-known associates of President-Elect Obama and his wife.

Our prayers and well wishes go out to Mark Felt's family & friends.

Record snow blankets Vegas

The biggest December snowfall in 41 years.

3 to 8 inches fell Wednesday closing schools for the first time since 1979.

Snow shovels in high demand.

Interstate 15 was temporarily closed Wednesday night. State routes 161, 164 and 165 are still closed to traffic. There were numerous traffic problems and accidents.

Flights were delayed from McCarran International Airport.

Plus, there were power outages for 8,000 Nevada residents.

Another snow storm predicted for this Friday.

I blame glow bull warming.

Barack Obama-san

Video added below.

"Obama's stimulus plan makes as much sense as paying my wife and kids to work for me to increase the cash flow in our household." — Pete Martinez, responding to "Barack Obama-san."

In the 1990s, Japan failed to borrow and spend its way to "stimulus". Obama and his administration would save the U.S. of A. prolonged economic agony to avoid Japan's failed example.

From today's WSJ:

"Keynesian "pump-priming" in a recession has often been tried, and as an economic stimulus it is overrated. The money that the government spends has to come from somewhere, which means from the private economy in higher taxes or borrowing. The public works are usually less productive than the foregone private investment.

In the Age of Obama, we seem fated to re-explain these eternal lessons...

Japan's economy grow anemically over that decade (1990s), but as the nearby chart shows, its national debt exploded. Only in this decade, with a monetary reflation and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's decision to privatize state assets and force banks to acknowledge their bad debts, did the economy recover. Yet recent governments have rolled back Mr. Koizumi's reforms and returned to their spending habits. But Japan does have better roads.

Now we're told that a similar spending program -- a new New Deal -- will revive the U.S. economy. How do you say "good luck" in Japanese?"

Please read it all, then forward it to the vaunted Office of the President-Elect.

TY MSwCS

Here's a great eight minute economics lesson which debunks Keynesian "pump-priming" via bigger government.


TY MM for the video link.

Scientists scoff at AP global-warming story

"When the AP produces propaganda rather than reporting, it gets distributed to thousands of publications around the world. Unfortunately, the rebuttals don’t get that kind of distribution, and the lies and propaganda get accepted as truth."

Bankruptcy Is the Perfect Remedy for Detroit

Washington hates the idea because it would lose leverage.

"So why do the Detroit Three managements and the UAW insist that "bankruptcy is not an option"? Perhaps because of the pain that would be inflicted upon both.

The bankruptcy code places severe limitations on the compensation that can be paid to a manager unless there is a "bona fide job offer from another business at the same or greater rate of compensation." Given the dismal performance of the Detroit Three in recent years, it seems unlikely that their senior management will be highly coveted on the open market. Incumbent management is also likely to find its prospects for continued employment less-secure.

Chapter 11 also provides a mechanism for forcing UAW workers to take further pay cuts, reduce their gold-plated health and retirement benefits, and overcome their cumbersome union work rules. The process for adjusting a collective bargaining agreement is somewhat complicated and begins with a sort of compulsory mediation process. But if this fails a company can (with court permission) nullify the agreement. This doomsday scenario is rarely triggered, however, as its threat casts a large shadow over negotiations, providing a stick to force concessions."

It's about time

Updated update below.

Kansas City Chiefs GM Carl Peterson Resigns.

"Peterson, president and general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs, has resigned. On Monday, team owner and chairman Clark Hunt said the resignation is effective at the end of the season.

Vice president Denny Thum will serve as interim president and general manager.

In a news conference Monday afternoon, Hunt said Peterson's resignation has been discussed for a while."

We know what you mean, Hunt. The fans around these parts have been discussing that plan for over five years now....

Update: NS says Bill Cowher for GM.

"With Cowher's age, it's not hard to imagine him being here for over a decade, which is why I would rather go with him than Marty Schottenheimer. Cowher would immediately return credibility to the Chiefs. However, is Cowher interested in the Chiefs?"

Updated update: Jason Whitlock says adios to King Carl.

"Sunday’s remarkable loss to the San Diego Chargers certainly warranted a strong response from Chiefs owner Clark Hunt. But no one could have predicted or expected this, a next-day removal of the man who has ruled the Chiefs for 20 years and ruined them for the last 10."

Gub'mint Schools & Lil Marxists

It's not easy to keep young minds open to a variety of political views.

"So obviously, what a teacher chooses to teach can have a hand in how that student thinks about the world. That said, Scott, in my opinion, it is not your job to decide the politics of the students in your class, it is your job to expose them to the critical thinking skills that will help them make informed decisions and back them up in a reasoned way. This is what is sorely lacking in our present educational system."

So how do you do it?

"Don't Be Evil" PT 88

Googlag admits manipulating the Hive Mind.

We last exposed Googlag's evil here - NY Times article where Googlag admitted to biased human interference in search results. An editorial process known as 'sandboxing'.

Googlag reaffirms their biased human interference with a twist - community based reality dis-information: Google cranks up the Consensus Engine.

"It wasn't surprising, then, that when five years ago I described how a small, self-selected number of people could rig Google's search results, the reaction from the people doing the rigging was violently antagonistic. Who lifted that rock? they cried.

But what was once Googlewashing by a select few now has Google's active participation."

Don't be evil. Don't use Googlag. Use the anti-googlag: Ask.com

Congressional Motors

"But the changes don't stop there. Sporty mag-style hubcaps and an all-new aggressive wedge shape designed by CM's Chief Stylist Ted Kennedy slices through the wind like an omnibus spending bill. It even features an airtight undercarriage to keep you and a passenger afloat up to 15 minutes -- even in the choppy waters of a Cape Cod inlet. Available in a rainbow of color choices to match any wardrobe, from Harvest Avocado to French Mustard."

Because gub'mint is oh so efficient.

A False Religion & Its Prophet

Worshipping the Weather.

"Just as faithful Catholics intone, "The body of Christ" when they partake of the Eucharist; devoted environmentalists chant, "We are saving Mother Earth" as they separate paper from plastic.

This church of the earth has a catechism for its young members. (Warning: the site for children that I have linked to in that last sentence is spooky.) The church has the green equivalent of tithing. (There are only three links in that last sentence. There are dozens of different green congregations that will gladly take their parishioners' money.)

The church even has indulgences. The worshippers call them "carbon credits." And when the indulgences are paid the believers' multiple sins against mother earth (exhaling is one of them) are forgiven. The followers have purchased the right to believe that they are not only saving the planet ... they are creating heaven on earth.

While the media and the left see environmentalism as hip, trendy, and "scientific," the religious aspect of the environmental movement is nothing but really real "old time religion." Jews and Christians call it "paganism."

Incarnation: “The Mystery IS the Gift…”

Have you ever read something and then said, “damn, I wish I’d written that?

The Anchoress has another excellent post.

Senate Seat Auctioned on eBay

You knew this was coming...

Che: Hollyweird's sick obsession with a murderous sociopath

"Hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective and cold-blooded killing machine." - Ernesto “Che” Guevara

(video)

This leftist hypocrisy makes a vile stench, and the brutal irony is lost on their miserable souls.

"He hated artists, so how is it possible that artists still today support the image of Che Guevara?" - Paquito D’Rivera.

Ty via TJR

"He's a Punk"

Blagojevich in 60 seconds.

There Will Be Blood

The movie, not the latest political carnage.

"I hate most people," Daniel bluntly admits. "I want to earn enough money so I can get away from everyone."

You've got to be kidding me. That won an academy award?!

An epic, self-loathing, sterile screed that epitomizes everything wrong with the insidious inbred hollyweird caustic culture.

2 1/2 hours of my life I'll never get back. Krykee.

Doping scandel... in Chess??

It's the end of the world as we know it.

"Letters of protest have been issued, according to Der Spiegel, by players who feel the very suggestion of doping is an "insult to their honor and intelligence."

Krykee! Clue bats for all those on the Olympiad Committee!!

Illinois Democrat Gov. Blagojevich's Chief of Staff Resigns

Update: Obama’s chief of staff spoke with Governor Rod Blagojevich on “multiple occasions” about Obama's vacant Senate seat.

It's officially an avalanche.

And is it too much to ask for the guy's political party in the headline??

It's not the preponderance of evidence, but the seriousness of the accusations

Where have we heard that one before?

Jesse Jackson, Jr. backers sought cash for Illinois Democrat Gov. Blagojevich.

"Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on federal corruption charges that allege, among other things, a brazen scheme to put Obama's vacant Senate seat up for sale.

According to the FBI complaint, the Oct. 31 meeting took place the same day federal prosecutors intercepted a conversation in which Blagojevich claims he'd been approached by a representative for an unnamed "Senate Candidate 5" who offered cash in exchange for the Senate seat.

On Wednesday, it was revealed that Jackson was the candidate."

Apparently, the nut didn't fall very far from the tree.

Blagojevich fundraiser held by Jackson allies Saturday.

"Among the attendees was a Blagojevich fundraiser already under scrutiny by federal investigators, Joliet pharmacist Harish Bhatt.

That meeting led to a Blagojevich fundraiser Saturday in Elmhurst, co-sponsored by Nayak and attended by Jesse Jackson Jr.'s brother, Jonathan, as well as Blagojevich, according to several people who were there. Nayak and Jonathan Jackson go back years and the two even went into business together years ago as part of a land purchase on the South Side.

Blagojevich and the congressman met to discuss the Senate seat on Monday, one day before federal prosecutors arrested Blagojevich and charged him with trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. As part of the charges, prosecutors alleged that Blagojevich was considering awarding the seat to a politician identified as "Senate Candidate 5" because emissaries for that candidate were promising to raise as much as $1.5 million for Blagojevich's campaign fund."

But, wait. There's more! Illinois AG files motion to declare Blago “unfit”.

Connect the dots. This tale of staggering Chicago corruption started after an historic election in a galaxy far, far away...

BHO! Use the bus.

"Presumably, the internal probe is focusing predominantly on advisers with Chicago roots or prior relationships to Blagojevich. That would include some of the very closest advisers to Obama personally – all people who will have top White House jobs."

But character doesn't matter...

I Blame Glow Bull Warming

California activates extreme cold/freeze emergency plan for this weekend.

Meanwhile, the Big easy gets hit with 2 inches of snow.

"The weather service said the previous earliest date for measurable snowfall in New Orleans was Dec. 22, 1989."

Alabama & Mississippi also blanketed with 5 inches of snow.

But, wait. There's more! DU says, "Ski Houston!" as the city ties record for earliest snow fall.

And looky here. The adults finally chime in on the Goracle's Church of Deception: 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims.

The CY has the last common sense word on "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure Warmer Scam."

"It's like a cycle or something. And it's been this way for hundreds of millions of years, well before bipeds with opposable thumbs moved to the coast, took up yoga, and decided to declare the world was about to end."

Go back to your lives, citizens.

Obama Was Mute on Illinois Corruption During Campaign

Lucianne says,"Speak now, President-elect Obama, or forever condemn us to President Biden."

"Mr. Obama has an ambiguous reputation among those trying to clean up Illinois politics. "We have a sick political culture, and that's the environment Barack Obama came from," Jay Stewart, executive director of the Chicago Better Government Association, told ABC News months ago. Though Mr. Obama did support ethics reforms as a state senator, Mr. Stewart noted that he's "been noticeably silent on the issue of corruption here in his home state including, at this point, mostly Democratic politicians."

Is Democrat Synonymous with "Collateral Damage"?

"And those are the ones that have been caught, or at least brought to bay: we’ve also got Reid, Dodd, Feinstein, Conrad, Pelosi, Murtha… I can keep going, but after a certain point the eyes glaze over. Suffice it to say that there’s no shortage of material to work with."

Update: Related: Blago's bus is on time, but the driver pretends not to know him.

Updated update: Obama-Rezko-Blago chickens coming home to roost as Feds investigate.

(Singing chickens!?)

Philosophy Matters

Russian Conservatives Challenge Notion Of 'Universal' Values.

"As the newly resurgent Russian state has asserted itself increasingly on the international stage, the conservative political elite has sought to flesh out something of an ideology that justifies the rejection of international institutions and Western criticism of political developments in Russia. In doing so, it has revived the 19th-century tsarist mantra of "Orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationality."

"I am deeply convinced that the conception of human rights varies from one culture to another, from one society to another, inasmuch as the very concept of the person varies," says political scientist Aleksandr Dugin, who heads the Center for Conservative Studies at Moscow State University and is a leading public proponent of the new Russian conservatism.

In Russian culture, Dugin says, a "collective anthropology" has predominated, meaning that the individual can only fully realize his or her potential when functioning as part of the entire society. The Russian conception of human rights does not include "the right to sin," meaning that society, especially in the form of the Russian Orthodox Church and the central state, has an obligation to protect itself as a means of protecting the rights of its citizens.

Dugin says the Russian cultural tradition on rights and values has more in common with the Islamic tradition than with Western liberalism. "In the Islamic and Orthodox traditions, almost everything corresponds," he says. "We both reject specific aspects of secular, Western, European, individualistic conception of human rights."

If that doesn't send a chill in your blood, you have no pulse.

Mid-Week Funnies

Illinois Democrat Gov. Blagojevich, chief of staff, arrested

Update below.

"Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested by FBI agents on federal corruption charges Tuesday morning."

...for trying to sell Obama’s vacant Senate seat??!

"“The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said in a statement."

Chicago. Chicago. It's a wonderful town.

Update: Obama or Axelrod; Somebody is lying.

Typical: Blagojevich has no plans of resigning.

History: The Blagojevich/Obama connection.

Bus! Bus! Bus! Bus!

And is it too much to ask for the guy's political party in the headline??

"It's not the money, it's the principle!"

Usually, when one hears that phrase, it's some cheap skate trying to get out of paying for repairs, or tipping for service, etc.

This guy maybe the exception.

NYC man spends $7,500 to fight $115 ticket.

Or maybe retirement has addled his brain....

Grief from the ol' ball-n-chain?

Obama still dodging straight answers on his smoking.

Stellar investigative journalism. Brokaw never asked Obama about his still unreleased medical records.

Tampons & Condoms - The Perfect Stocking Stuffer!

Nothing says 'Happy Holidays' like managing body fluids.

Or maybe you need a better class of friends.

Far fetched? Maybe not. How about gift certificates for reproductive health services?

Planned Parenthood of Indiana Offers Gift Certificates.

"Planned Parenthood provides contraception, pap smears and other routine health services for women, as well as abortions. The gift certificates, ranging in values from $25 to $100, can be redeemed for all clinic services.

The Indiana branch is selling the gift certificates on its Web site, touting it as a way to give the gift of health this holiday season.

But the vouchers are sparking controversy. Some anti-abortion supporters see it as less about the gift of affordable health care and more about making a mockery of the holidays."

Nothing smacks of Santa Claus like a ride in the stirrups, or a gloved finger up your butt.

Miss Manners, call your office.

But this isn't about 'health care' - reproductive or otherwise. It's about a campaign of normalization for a very ugly industry: abortion. Planned Parenthood of America is a billion dollar a year industry; most of that money being generated from killing unborn babies. Reproductive health care is a catch-all cover-up, and everyone knows it. To attempt gift certificates for such personal & confidential procedures is disingenuous at best and insulting at worst.

Six degrees of health care separation this is not.

Dr. Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr. agrees with moi.

“The word inappropriate hardly describes Planned Parenthood’s scheme,” said Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr., who works for a number of pro-life causes, including Priests for Life. “To give someone a gift card from the nation’s largest abortion business to is to give death for Christmas.”

And since these are internet purchases, do you think Planned Parenthood of Indiana will follow the Obama campaign's lede by disconnecting validation checks on credit-card transactions?

Not that your humble no talent hack questions Planned Parenthood's ethics, or anything.

"A Date Which Will Live in Infamy"

A date that we barely notice anymore.

Big Three Auto Makers Lousy at Groveling, too

The American people just aren't that impressed.

NewsBusted for Dec. 5th

We'll hook you up!

Natural Born Loser

Some people epitomize the phrase.

TY B

Mayberry was covered in lead paint & Opie ate a lot of it.

It's the only thing to explain the damage to adult Ron Howard's brain.

The doctors have pronounced his BDS malignant.

Howard's latest film, "Frost/Nixon", is a loon toon screed. It seeks to paint a national political carnage from GW Bush as far greater and detrimental than crimes of team Nixon. It does so by ignoring the facts.

Pitifully pathetic.

Fortunately, there are still some actual working journalists in the aftermath of SS Obama's swooning prop wash to call bvllsh1t! on such self-inflicted ignorance.

I'm ashamed to call myself a redhead.

What is Wrong with Pennsylvania?

"Obama mocked you to his liberal donors out in San Fransisco. He mentioned Pennsylvainians by Name. Yet the majority of you still Voted for him. Even when it was found out just days before the election that Obama planned to fine the Coal companies out of business, which would elimate a huge number of Jobs in Pennsylvania, still you Voted for him. That doesn't even make sense. And you can't just blame Philly, although it's tempting.

Tell me something Pennsylvania when will you learn? Murtha's back, Obama's President and we have you to Thank for it. Now your Governor, Fast Eddie Rendell is at it again. This time caught being his sexist self on video tape. Apparently Fast Eddie thinks only Childless women should hold powerful office. CNN's Cambell Brown in a rare moment of clarity in the segment, takes to task the Governor's idea that Janet Napalatanio's "perfect" because she has "No Life""

It's hopey-changey-licious!

The Clown Cars Roll into D.C.

Boortz sets the stage for this pilfering farce.

The Big Three auto makers are increasingly desperate and have no business plan, except to say pay up or else the economy gets it (like it ain't already in triage).

And the unions wake up with too little, too late only to realize they're the ones who helped sucked the teat dry.

Update: From Greg @ 12/05/08 12:42:56 PM in comments on Boortz.

"BIG 3
Subject: Interesting Parable
"A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (Ford)
decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River . Both teams practiced long
and hard to reach their peak performance before the race. On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to
investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of
senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate
action.

Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1
person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person
rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a
consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second
opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the
boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to
prevent another loss to the Japanese, t he rowing team's management structure
was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering
superintendents, and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give
the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called
the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners, and free
pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes, and
other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor
performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and
canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was
distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team
was out-sourced to India .

The End."

That's not the whole problem, but it was good for a chuckle.

Tis the Season to be Stampeding Savages

From the Philadelphia Daily News via CSKC:

Mangling the Wal-Mart story by Michael Smerconish. In its entirety.

"THE ONLY thing that could've awakened me from a tryptophan-induced slumber last weekend was what happened after the doors opened at a Wal-Mart on Long Island, N.Y.

And I don't mean the trampling of Jdimytai Damour. I refer to the subsequent coverage of Damour's tragic death. Everywhere I turned, I kept hearing it was a sign of the foundering economy.

Take, for example, the New York Times account. The lead: "In a sign of consumer desperation amid a bleak economy, the annual rite of retailing known as Black Friday turned chaotic and even deadly, as predawn shoppers scrambled for holiday bargains."

What? Consumer desperation amid a bleak economy?

This incident wasn't about that. It was about people willing to become savages in order to buy cheap TVs.

As the Times reported in another story detailing the incident: "By 3:30 a.m. the crowd outside Wal-Mart had swelled, drawn by sales promoting a Samsung 50-inch plasma high-definition television for $798, a Bissel Compact upright vacuum for $28, a Samsung 10.2 megapixel digital camera for $69 and DVDs like 'The Incredible Hunk' for $9."

Nor were they driven by holiday cheer. In fact, I doubt the shopping lists in their hands were the wish lists of loved ones. This was all about people who wanted TVs and gadgets - for themselves, no doubt - cheap.

No, Jdimytai Damour didn't die at the feet of consumers tightening their belts during what has now been dubbed an economic recession by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Personally, I think he was trampled by people who wanted - not needed - something new. Sure, the economy is bleak. But that's far in the background of this story.

Want proof of the character of the individuals we're talking about? How about the fact that, as reported by the Associated Press, some of the shoppers were upset to learn that Wal-Mart was closing the store to clean up and investigate the death of an employee?

Need more? The stampede reportedly engulfed co-workers seeking to help Damour as he lay at the bottom of the throng. Police officers attempting to administer CPR were also knocked down.

The New York Post quoted Damour's father, a 66-year-old school-bus driver named Ogera Charles, as saying he was most upset by the bargain hunters who stepped on his son en route to their Black Friday treasure.

"Why, why - looking for bargains? Money doesn't help you. We are human beings," he said.

Those words reminded me of a conversation I had a few months ago with John C. Bogle, founder and former CEO of the Vanguard Group. "Greed is not confined to the financial markets; it just finds its worst manifestation there," he told me in September, a month before his book "Enough: True Measures of Money, Business and Life" hit the shelves.

"Our society has changed. It's kind of a 'me' society, a 'more' society, an egocentric society, an arrogant society in many, many ways."

Unfortunately, Bogle's words were on full display on two fronts last weekend. The first, obviously, was the vestibule of that Long Island Wal-Mart, where semicrazed shoppers left a man's body lying next to a metal door frame that was "crumpled like an accordion," according to various reports.

The second? The camera lenses and snap reports that sought to link the country's deepening economic hole to a rabid Black Friday stampede.

Times economic writer Peter Goodman mentioned Black Friday in the same breath as the bread lines of the Great Depression and the gas lines of the 1970s before offering: "All those people were there, lined up in the cold and darkness, because of sophisticated marketing forces that have produced this day now called Black Friday. They were engaging in early-morning shopping as contact sport. American business has long excelled at creating a sense of shortage amid abundance, an anxiety that one must act now or miss out."

The reality is that tough economic times have been the prevailing economic storyline for months now, and too many media outlets couldn't let Damour's death pass without gathering a little more string."

---

Listen to Michael Smerconish weekdays 5-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Read him Sundays in the Inquirer. Contact him via the Web at www.mastalk.com.

---

God help us when a real tragedy befalls this nation. Scorpions & vipers will look downright appealing by comparison.

Historic Progress in Iraq

By Charles Krauthammer. In its entirety.

"WASHINGTON -- The barbarism in Mumbai and the economic crisis at home have largely overshadowed an otherwise singular event: the ratification of military and strategic cooperation agreements between Iraq and the United States.

They must not pass unnoted. They were certainly noted by Iran, which fought fiercely to undermine the agreements. Tehran understood how a formal U.S.-Iraqi alliance endorsed by a broad Iraqi consensus expressed in a freely elected parliament changes the strategic balance in the region.

For the United States, it represents the single most important geopolitical advance in the region since Henry Kissinger turned Egypt from a Soviet client into an American ally. If we don't blow it with too hasty a withdrawal from Iraq, we will have turned a chronically destabilizing enemy state at the epicenter of the Arab Middle East into an ally.

Also largely overlooked at home was the sheer wonder of the procedure that produced Iraq's consent: classic legislative maneuvering with no more than a tussle or two -- tame by international standards (see YouTube: "Best Taiwanese Parliament Fights Of All Time!") -- over the most fundamental issues of national identity and direction.

The only significant opposition bloc was the Sadrists, a mere 30 seats out of 275. The ostensibly pro-Iranian religious Shiite parties resisted Tehran's pressure and championed the agreement. As did the Kurds. The Sunnis put up the greatest fight. But their concern was that America would be withdrawing too soon, leaving them subject to overbearing and perhaps even vengeful Shiite dominance.

The Sunnis, who only a few years ago had boycotted provincial elections, bargained with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, trying to exploit his personal stake in agreements he himself had negotiated. They did not achieve their maximum objectives. But they did get formal legislative commitments for future consideration of their grievances, from amnesty to further relaxation of the de-Baathification laws.

That any of this democratic give-and-take should be happening in a peaceful parliament just two years after Iraq's descent into sectarian hell is in itself astonishing. Nor is the setting of a withdrawal date terribly troubling. The deadline is almost entirely symbolic. U.S. troops must be out by Dec. 31, 2011 -- the weekend before the Iowa caucuses, which, because God is merciful, will arrive again only in the very fullness of time. Moreover, that date is not just distant but flexible. By treaty, it can be amended. If conditions on the ground warrant, it will be.

True, the war is not over. As Gen. David Petraeus repeatedly insists, our (belated) successes in Iraq are still fragile. There has already been an uptick in terror bombings, which will undoubtedly continue as what's left of al-Qaeda, the Sadrist militias and the Iranian-controlled "special groups" try to disrupt January's provincial elections.

The more long-term danger is that Iraq's reborn central government becomes too strong and, by military or parliamentary coup, the current democratic arrangements are dismantled by a renewed dictatorship that abrogates the alliance with the United States.

Such disasters are possible. But if our drawdown is conducted with the same acumen as was the surge, not probable. A self-sustaining, democratic and pro-American Iraq is within our reach. It would have two hugely important effects in the region.

First, it would constitute a major defeat for Tehran, the putative winner of the Iraq War according to the smart set. Iran's client, Moqtada al-Sadr, still hiding in Iran, was visibly marginalized in parliament -- after being militarily humiliated in Basra and Baghdad by the new Iraqi security forces. Moreover, the major religious Shiite parties were the ones who negotiated, promoted and assured passage of the strategic alliance with the U.S., against the most determined Iranian opposition.

Second is the regional effect of the new political entity on display in Baghdad -- a flawed yet functioning democratic polity with unprecedented free speech, free elections and freely competing parliamentary factions. For this to happen in the most important Arab country besides Egypt can, over time (over generational time, the timescale of the war on terror), alter the evolution of Arab society. It constitutes our best hope for the kind of fundamental political-cultural change in the Arab sphere that alone will bring about the defeat of Islamic extremism. After all, newly sovereign Iraq is today more engaged in the fight against Arab radicalism than any country on earth, save the United States -- with which, mirabile dictu, it has now thrown in its lot."

---

letters@charleskrauthammer.com Copyright 2008, Washington Post Writers Group

---

I disagree. The war is over.

Obama May Give Speech From An Islamic Capital

In his vaunted first hundred days.

How about Detroit? Heh.

Jakarta, Cairo, Tehran, Damascus. All bad ideas.

The real question is 'what would he say?'

"The global problems generating from within the Muslim world today are so odious and so obviously self-inflicted that any honest speech on the matter would offend and enrage Muslims the world over. At the same time, because of these very problems, a softball speech about Islam’s current role in global affairs would look like cowardly capitulation. If Obama splits the difference and mixes lukewarm praise with lukewarm condemnation, the stunt will be seen rightly as meaningless."

Baghdad would seem to be the only viable option, making the nutroots collective head explode.

Researchers Scam Taxpayers to Prove What Everyone Already Knew

Threat of Punishment Works to Modify Bad Behavior.

"The research results show how established norms and rules in a society could keep freeloaders in check and increase pro-social behavior, such as helping others or sharing with them rather than looking out for number one.

The new study shows that over the long term, punishment gets ingrained in people's psyches in a way that causes them to fear getting into trouble. This fear can keep otherwise freeloaders, who would normally act as sponges to soak up the generosity of others without having to contribute any time or money, on the straight-and-narrow."

Spare the research grants and save some tax dollars.

I bet it works on Congress, too.

Casualties @ low levels in Iraq and Afghanistan

One casualty is too many, but there's horrific gun violence in America's streets for comparison.

The Iraq war is won. It's remarkable progress considering the blithering defeat-o-crats screaming defeat!, defeat! just one year ago.

Still, Afghanistan needs a surge of its own.

"The US commanders on the ground want 20,000 more troops as a start, one of the few points of agreement between Barack Obama and John McCain on war policy.

This, however, makes it look as though the prospects aren’t quite so bleak. Taliban activity has been blunted, apparently due to the stepped-up efforts of the Pakistani military. American attacks across the border began increasing several months ago, and USA Today quotes a brigade commander who says he’s seen a decline in attacks over that same period. Winter plays a role in this, too, but even in comparion with other winters, that’s a low number for casualties in the war zone."

Also, put the Germans on a diet.

Krykee.

It's a Jack Black Christmas: Pole Dancing Robots!

Insurance req'd for lap dance.



All part of a 'cutting edge' (read: tacky) art exhibition in London.

Video, for all you betas. Yes, it's safe for work.

Tis the Season to be Partisan & Divisive! PT 2

Leftist loon toon Deborah Lawrence got her slap down for the infantile impeachment ornament here.

This lil adolescent treasure is from Catalonia in NE Spain, so I'm not sure how partisan it is, unless it's imported into the States.

Not exactly 'Holy S#!t'.

Click image for all the, ahem, straight poop.

Not on Santa's list: Osama Bin Lego

Only it's not made by LEGO, but a knock-off competitor, BrickArms.

"A RANGE of Lego-style fighting figures — including an al-Qaeda terrorist — has been slammed by religious leaders."

LEGO UK is not happy, either.

"BrickArms is not licensed by LEGO UK to customise LEGO figures and has no links to the LEGO brand."

Except in size, shape & compatibility.

Nope. Only limited recourse since LEGO was stripped of their trademark status back in November.

So, what other 'fighting figures' are available through BrickArms? A nazi SS major & storm trooper - with grenade launchers.

Stay classy, dipsticks.


TY TJR via STACLU

This Army Travels on Beer & Sausage

And eschews fruits & veggies.

"They drink too much and they're too fat to fight, that's the damning conclusion of German parliamentary reports into the country's 3,500 troops stationed in Afghanistan."

Not only that, but they suck at their job of training Afghan security forces.

Removing G%&3@//m Malware

Malware. I hate Illinois malware.

Malware: malicious software which 'hooks' into your op/sys to hijack certain functions.

I'm a very safe & savvy suffer. I only use FireFox. I utilize the very bestest in free spy and adware removal programs, plus immunization & firewall protection (not MS). I rarely get more than the occasional tracking cookie. I have a very clean machine.

Until this week.

Some fascist piece of hijacking dog squeeze known as 'virtumonde; virtumonde dot sci; WindowsUpd1 dot exe; sysupd dot exe; etc, etc' took over my browser.

GRRRRR! I don't want flying pop ups! I don't want to go to cyber h3ll - url dot adtrgt dot com!

Nothing worked. Not SpyBot; not Ad Aware; not HiJack This!; not Spyware Doctor.

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware worked! Great program! And it's FREE.

Problem solved. It doesn't work on democrats, though.

Common Sense

Obama shelves oil company tax after price fall.

Obama is appearing more like a pragmatic opportunist, even while breaking yet another campaign promise. It is sure to infuriate the wealth envy, swooning masses who voted for him. I say 'Good!'

"Many energy experts warned that imposing a windfall profits tax would discourage energy companies from drilling for oil in the United States, which would exacerbate U.S. reliance on foreign suppliers."

Common sense. Supply & demand. The 'windfall profits tax' is an economic fiction. It demagogues convenient straw targets for political ends. It ignores other, more profitable industries, for the same reason. Obama knows this. It explains his about face.

'Hope n Change' looks a lot like 'Center-Right'.

You're welcome, nutroots.

Tis the Season to be Partisan & Divisive!

Apparently, someone didn't get the 'hope n change' memo.

Artist Makes Christmas Impeachment Ornament for White House Tree.

"Laura Bush asked members of Congress to pick local painters to decorate ornaments for this year's 20-foot Fraser fir in the Blue Room. The globes (to be unveiled by the first lady tomorrow) are supposed to showcase something special about each congressional district. Washington state's Rep. Jim McDermott contacted a local arts organization, which asked (Deborah) Lawrence, a collage artist, to create the local entry.

"I was at first nauseated, then realized it was an opportunity," said Lawrence, 55, who frequently combines politics and satire in her work and saw this as the perfect way "to highlight Jim McDermott because he's a hero of mine."

The nine-inch ball is covered with swirly red and white stripes -- and, in tiny glued-on text, salutes the Democratic congressman's support for a resolution to impeach President Bush.(Also showcased: Washington state's 1919 labor strike, its suffrage movement and the violent anti-World Trade Organization riots of 1999.) Lawrence sent it off to D.C. in September and was very surprised it was accepted for the tree -- and that she was invited to this afternoon's White House reception for the artists, which she flew to D.C. to attend."

Nevermind, Deborah. The White House was just yanking your chain so you'd spend some coin on a bogus trip!

Get over yourself.

Mumbai Terrorists Used Google Earth to Plot Attacks

Can governments get Google Earth to obscure images of sensitive locations?

"The 10 gunmen who terrorized Mumbai last week used Google Earth to plot their attacks, according to statements made by the sole captured terrorist. The attackers targeted public areas whose locations were already available on printed maps, but can a government ask Google to exclude images of more sensitive areas from Google Earth?

It can try."

Google has only acknowledged one instance of cooperation:

"British troops discovered that insurgents in Basra had been printing out detailed Google Earth images of U.K. military bases. In response, Google replaced its satellite shots of Basra with an earlier set of photos, taken before the war began."

But other locations do appear to have been altered:

"for example, the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., home of the vice president, where everything within the road encircling the Observatory is blurrier than everything surrounding it. Or Soesterberg Air Base and Huis Ten Bosch Palace in the Netherlands, which are represented by choppy pixels. Such instances occur because governments can, in certain cases, exert control over Google's third-party image providers."

In other words, not because Google agrees to cooperate.

But Google does agree to cooperate in other, different instances. Google has a dubious history of cooperating with many governments for a specific evil ends - namely aiding the Chi-Coms to hunt down Tibetan dissidents & facilitate censorship inside Tibet.

Plus, Google cooperated with the U.N. to erase reports of U.N. corruption from Google's search results. Many other instances of dis-information editing have occurred, and Google admits as much in the NY Times!

And, as owner of YouTube, Google aides and abets Islamic terrorists and their host nations by refusing to pull murderous propaganda videos which highlight these jihadis killing American soldiers.

So, the precedent is there for Googlag Google's cooperation with the world's various governments and their proxies for certain ends. As for altering sensitive images in Google Earth to thwart terrorists, it all depends on if Google really wants to 'Don't Be Evil' or prefers to facilitate that evil.