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August 31, 2005
ATTENTION - Please pass on
As I've stated before, I'm a government worker. Got the following information through official channels this afternoon. You don't have to read between the lines to have a shiver go right up your spine. This comes straight from the California Office of Emergency Services
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 12:29 PMMy thanks to Jody who got my email earlier and has already posted this on her blog, too.
Subject: Rescue Line for VictimsState OES has learned that trapped victims on the Gulf Coast are calling family, friends, loved-ones, or anyone they can get a call out to in California asking for someone to rescue them. These requests need to go immediately to the US Coast Guard's Rescue Line at 800-323-7233 and immediate assistance will be sent.
Please distribute this information as widely as possible.
Thank you.
********************
Eric Lamoureux
Chief, Office of Public Information
California Governor's Office of Emergency Services
Posted by Darleen at 08:18 PM | Comments (0)
Next she'll be joining Fred Phelps
Ms Cindy fresh from her 200 member strong campout at Crawford ... make that DAY camp since she spent each night snuggly in a local motel ... takes her performance 'art' on the road and moves to protest The Blue Angels
Peace groups planning to protest a Blue Angels air show next month at the Brunswick Naval Air Station have enlisted a woman whose own demonstrations outside President Bush's Texas ranch have galvanized many against the war in Iraq.Yes, those evil, evil Navy pilots must be stopped. In the words of the protesters, Blue Angels are nothing but a "recruiting gimmick."
Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, Calif., will be the featured guest at a protest on Saturday, Sept. 10, in Brunswick.
I bet Karl Rove is behind it.
(hattip Redstate.org)
Posted by Darleen at 06:39 AM | Comments (1)
August 30, 2005
The ugliness of humans turned animal
In the wake of Katrina we see stories of tragedy, heroics and dramatic rescue. Individuals, companies and foundations have jumped to help in anyway they can. Glenn Reynolds has an extensive list of links to organizations involved in relief.
However there is just something about the suffering of some that brings out the jackal in others. Prime example is to turn on the tv and see video of looting in New Orleans.
NEW ORLEANS -- With much of the city flooded by Hurricane Katrina, looters floated garbage cans filled with clothing and jewelry down the street in a dash to grab what they could. In some cases, looting on Tuesday took place in full view of police and National Guard troops.I've heard people compare looting to grave robbing. But it's worse. It's taking big hunking mouthfulls of a living body unable to defend itself. This is vampirism. This is the reduction of civilization to mobs of predators and thugs, salivia dripping off chins slack under eyes no longer human.At a Walgreen's drug store in the French Quarter, people were running out with grocery baskets and coolers full of soft drinks, chips and diapers.
When police finally showed up, a young boy stood in the door screaming, "86! 86!" -- the radio code for police -- and the crowd scattered. ...
Around the corner on Canal Street, the main thoroughfare in the central business district, people sloshed headlong through hip-deep water as looters ripped open the steel gates on the front of several clothing and jewelry stores.
One man, who had about 10 pairs of jeans draped over his left arm, was asked if he was salvaging things from his store.
"No," the man shouted, "that's EVERYBODY'S store."
Gov Haley Barbour makes it plain.
"I have instructed the Highway Patrol and the National Guard to treat looters ruthlessly. Looting will not be tolerated and rules of engagement will be as aggressive as the law allows."IMO I wish he could have been stronger.
The person running down the street with a microwave under one arm and a fistful of jewelry in the other hand deserves nothing more than a bullet to the head.
Posted by Darleen at 08:31 PM | Comments (2)
Trivia
On our journey down the California coast, we stayed in the town of Cambria and visited Hearst Castle. Of the rooms we visited on the tour was the magnificent dining room of Casa Grande. Actually it was more a dining hall. Does it look slightly familiar to you?
Our tour guide told us that before the first Harry Potter movie was filmed, members of the team spent many a day in the dining hall and used it was inspiration for the Hogwarts Dining hall.
The whole site is, indeed, enchanted. I'd highly recommend putting into anyone's California travel plans.
Posted by Darleen at 08:06 PM | Comments (2)
See? BS!
Sometimes one can read something and truly marvel at the absolute thickheadedness of the people involved.
Marvel, rather then doing what your gut wants, to throw-up.
After a controversial run-in with bloggers last year that helped sink "60 Minutes Wednesday," CBS has hired a "nonbudsman" to write a blog that will go behind the scenes at the news division.Oh. CBS had a (not explained) "run-in" with bloggers so what to do? Have one's OWN blogger.
Former "Hotline" editor Vaughn Ververs will report his findings on "Public Eye," which debuts next month on http://www.cbsnews.com.Ahhhh. Isn't that sweet? CBS figures people are so stupid about journalism they need to have it explained to them in a 101 class. Of course, don't expect really TOO much ...Ververs will be a kind of media reporter, mostly focused on CBS News, reporting and writing about how the news is gathered, produced and placed. In addition to providing Journalism 101, "Public Eye" also could offer extended versions of segments that appeared on CBS, interviews with correspondents and producers and maybe even the daily story meeting for the "CBS Evening News."
"I'm not here to set the rules," Ververs said. "I'm not even here to voice my opinion. That's not my job."Well, what IS your job, Ververs? Outside of teaching Journalism 101?
"It's going to be an honest, fair, unvarnished look at what we do, and that means that it's an experiment," Heyward said. "It's a risk. Not everybody approves of what we do. But I'm banking on the fact that people will also see how much effort we make about being fair and being ethical."BHWAHAHAHAHA! Oh my that's rich. Notice, too, that no mention of what caused the "run-in with bloggers" yet? Oh, but wait for it, see how they frame it ....
In the wake of the discredited "60 Minutes Wednesday" report about President Bush's service in the National Guard, CBS News was criticized for not being immediately forthcoming after questions about the reporting emerged.CBS was criticized for not ANSWERING questions fast enough? Sure nuf. Had NOTHING to do with the deliberate attempt to pass fraudulant --- FRAUDULANT --- documents as real in a blatant attempt at political manipulation before an election. Nothing to do that such documents were easily proven frauds by the "run-in" bloggers and the controversy was NOT about so-called transparency but about outright fraud.Kramer thinks that in the case of last year's "Memogate" involving Dan Rather and "60 Minutes Wednesday," something like "Public Eye" would have been useful.
"It would help a news organization deal with controversy because it brings it out into the open," Kramer said. "If you believe as I do that we're an honest, hard-working news organization, all you need to do is have the ability to explain how you do what you do and they'll understand."
What I understand, after all the stonewalling, whitewashing and circling of wagons, Ververs et al, still are trying to pretend that an "honest mistake" took place.
I'm only sorry that criminal charges were not levied against Dan Rather and his producer.
Posted by Darleen at 12:53 PM | Comments (1)
August 29, 2005
'And then they are all mine'
Damn. Holy fucking damn.
A righteous fisking of an academic twit can be found at Jeff Goldstein's.
Gawd. Brings tears to the eyes. Read the whole thing.[professor writes:]The children of red states will seek a higher education, and that education will very often happen in blue states or blue islands in red states. For the foreseeable future, loyal dittoheads will continue to drop off their children at the dorms. After a teary-eyed hug, Mom and Dad will drive their SUV off toward the nearest gas station, leaving their beloved progeny behind.And then they are all mine.
Translation: “They WILL BE assimilated! That is, if I can get them to think of me as something more important than a childless English lecturer."
Posted by Darleen at 01:08 PM | Comments (2)
Heh.
From my email:
A group of American retired teachers recently went to France on a tour. Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, was part of the tour group. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry-on. "You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously. "Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."The American said, "The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."
"Impossible!" barked the officer. "Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France."
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained. "Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in '44 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find any Frenchmen to show it to.
Posted by Darleen at 12:42 PM | Comments (3)
August 28, 2005
Sunday challenge
Anyone want to go through my archives and post where I've "hatemongered" or ridiculed liberals?
Hint: Leftists are NOT liberals.
Posted by Darleen at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)
August 27, 2005
From Marionette to real American Doll - with UPDATE
Jeff Goldstein explores the Politics of Grief and in the comments, Chris comes up with a phrase (via Steve at Hog On Ice) that just cries out for Photoshopping
Click for larger view
UPDATE Never let it be said that Cindy misses a beat to add to her list of assinine and indecent statements -- now she's attacking moms who disagree with 'Mother' Sheehan
How can these moms who still support George Bush and his insane war in Iraq want more innocent blood shed just because their sons or daughters have been killed? I don't understand it. I don't understand how any mother could want another mother to feel the pain we feel. I am starting to lose a little compassion for them. I know they have been as brainwashed as the rest of America, but they know the pain and heartache and they should not wish it on another. However, I still feel their pain so acutely and pray for these "continue the murder and mayhem" moms to see the light.What a fucking bitch.
Posted by Darleen at 04:16 PM | Comments (8)
For Brad and other 'progressives'
vis a vis Nationalized 'Health' care, this quote about the underlying philosophy of same:
"I quit when medicine was placed under State control, some years ago ... Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men who sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward. I observed that in all discussions that preceded the enslavement of medicine, men discussed everything -- except the desires of the doctors. Men considered only the 'welfare' of the patients, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter, was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said, only 'to serve.' That a man who's willing to work under compulsion is too dangerous a brute to entrust with a job in the stockyards -- never occurred to those who proposed to help the sick by making life impossible for the healthy. I have often wondered at the smugness with which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind -- yet what is it that they expect to depend on, when they lie on an operating table under my hands? Their moral code has taught them to believe that it is safe to rely on the virtue of their victims. Well, that is the virtue I have withdrawn. Let them discover the kind of doctors that their system will now produce. Let them discover, in their operating rooms and hospital wards, that it is not safe to place their lives in the hands of a man whose life they have throttled. It is not safe, if he is the sort of man who resents it -- and still less safe, if his is the sort who doesn't."
quote from the character of Dr. Thomas Hendricks from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
Posted by Darleen at 11:58 AM | Comments (13)
Saturday - catching up & fun reads
Rolled into sizzling So. Cal last evening. After a week of ocean breezes and windbreakers, I'm kinda glad husband and I are now "empty nesters" -- the house immediately became a clothing optional zone. Every little coastal town we went through on the drive down from Frisco I sighed "I could live here." My two faves are Pacific Grove and Cambria. Ocean, trees ... it doesn't get much better than that!
I've missed my sisters of The Cotillion, now slogging through tons of email and am going about reading things I've missed all week.
Stacy, who has been fending off totally clueless trolls (redundant phrase there, eh?) vis a vis non-Left women and sex, asks RTG to dig into her archives and comes up with this hilarious piece (snippet):
We, the Conservative Girls Who Love To Fuck, do hold these truths to be self-evident ...Then I wander over to Cassandra's place and she thoughtfully condenses all those emails that await my perusal (I'm giving you yet another drink warning!).
Jeff Harrell takes his ever sharp Ginsu knives against International Herald Tribune and makes bait of the usual anti-Israel rhetoric that really is thinnly veiled anti-Semitism.
“This is a conflict largely waged by proxies,” Ray continues, “as Iran exhibits its ideological disdain for Israel by assisting militant groups.” See, it’s not murder. It’s not the cold, calculated murder of Jewish women and children. It’s “ideological disdain.”Let's see...5..4..3..2..1.. cue the usual commenters "challenging" my assertion of anti-Israel = anti-Semitism. Here's a really big TIP ... if said "I'm only criticizing Israeli policies, some of my best friends are Jews, ya know" holds a completely different standard for the nation of Israel than it does for, say France or Germany, then I'm pretty safe in speaking truth to power that said "some of my best friends are Jews" person is minimally a nascent anti-Semite.
Jay Tea at Wizbang highlights yet another incident that reinforces my deep mistrust of the International Red Cross.
With the story that came out last week that the Italian chapter of the Red Cross treated wounded terrorists in Iraq, hid them from US forces, and then released them (presumably to terrorize anew), I think the time has come to give a long, hard look at the Red Cross.Whoops... time to change the laundry and fix a little lunch. More later.So we have the Red Cross giving aid and support to terrorist in Iraq. But they were trading them for their own people -- was this an aberration, or part of a long-standing trend?
I think the evidence points to the latter. The Red Cross is quietly abandoning its long-touted neutrality, and actively supporting terrorism.
Posted by Darleen at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)
Battlestar Galactica - Home Part 2
Just as the writers tie up some threads, others come a'unravelin' all over the place. Baltar is deftly manipulated by Six. When she senses rebellion from him she knocks him off balance by claiming she's not "real" just part of his psychosis. He runs to have a brain scan in a hilarious scene with Dr. Cottle. Later, she reels him back into her own agenda when Baltar overhears Helo and Sharon talking about her pregnancy.
After Helo's Sharon double crosses Meier in the assassination plot of father and son Adama, we still cannot be certain that Sharon really is operating independently of Cylon control or plots. Six believes the unborn baby is part of her agenda, but last season we witnessed the animosity between a Caprica Six and Sharon.
And since Six is promising that the baby girl "belongs" to her and Baltar, not Helo and Sharon, it hints at some very dark turns in upcoming episodes.
Cmdr. Adama and President Roslin have made peace now that they both are on the same page again. How long will it last?
Geez, what I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall at story meetings!
Posted by Darleen at 09:42 AM | Comments (0)
August 25, 2005
Jesus was not a 'socialist'
Coffee. check
Muffin. check
Giggles at comment section. check
Being on vacation means only checking my 'puter on a very occassional basis and that can make for some real hilarious discoveries the next morning before we pack and hit the road again.
Commenter Hrubec was so enamored of his own frothing he posted under another name below and completely missed my humorous jab at his allowing his daughter to be a Girl Scout. How does such a fine self-identified Leftist allow for a GS in the family? An organization built on personal responsibility, patriotism and volunteerism?
The seemingly incompatible love that conservatives have for capitalism and the socialist teachings of Christ always confuse me for example.
Yes, socialism is incompatible with capitalism, but it is also incompatible with charity and morality.
Jesus was not a socialist. No where in His teachings does one find a call that GOVERNMENT must use its power to redistribute property from the earners to the needers. Indeed, Jesus preached about the difference between the Government and individuals.
Jesus was about voluntary charity. And only capitalism makes that possible.
Yesterday we spent the day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium a perfect example of how capitalism trumps socialism/communism/totalitarian authoritarianism every time. It is a triumph of voluntary charity, having been built with no government/taxpayer dollars. It was founded with $55 million from David and Lucile Packard. I stood in front of the membership roster at the Aquarium, marveling at the list of names - individuals and foundations - who have contributed to the Foundation that maintains the marvelous work of the Packards. There is a 2 to 1 ratio of volunteers to employees who help at the Aquarium, everything from answering questions from children to feeding the animals.
Without capitalism, this place would never exist. Without capitalism, Americans would not have the deserved reputation as the most charitable people on earth.
Socialism is not about individuals giving of their own earned property. It's about self-selected people of power deciding to fulfill their own desires with someone else's property taken by force.
Morality assumes choice. Socialism is a matter of, at best, amorality, because it robs people of choice.
This is why I find trying to discuss issues with Leftists frustrating. They cannot or will not differentiate between government actions and individual actions. They conflate the realms when it suits them, thus criticism of Leftist speech is "censorship" when done by a non-Leftist individuals, or advocacy of non-Leftist ideas is "trying to shove fascist/religious/rightwing/traditional values down our throats!"
Thus 'Mother' Marionette is the only "authentic" voice of KIA families, regardless of the anti-American/anti-Semitic organizations she has allied herself with (scroll down and check out William Leatherwood's revealing comment here). For those in which the personal is the political possessing the "correct politics" makes for the total of a person's worth. And disagreeing with Leftism is to be dismissed out-of-hand as being inauthentic.
The Girl Scouts are no more "socialist" as Jesus. Though, I can see nervous Leftist parents might want to pretend so to minimize their cognitive dissonance.
Posted by Darleen at 09:42 AM | Comments (23)
August 23, 2005
College, socialists and a road trip
Saturday morning I posted my review of BSG and now is the first time I've have a moment to even look at the 'net or news.
We hit the road at 6:30 am and trekked to Frisco. Six people and two cars packed tight with everything Siobhan left to the last minute to pack. 'Course, I'd been telling her to pack since she graduated in June, but she didn't get serious about it until about a week ago.
Teens. Heh.
My daughters, Jenn and Heather, hadn't been in Frisco before and if nothing else, the city is renown for culinary delights. We had fun introducing them to a couple of the smaller local places with atmosphere and great food. One of our fave places of Foley's on O'Farrell ... an Irish pub that's everything you'd expect it to be this side of Dublin.
Sunday we moved Siobhan into the dorms at SFSU, a cool, cloudy day when So. Cal sizzled in typical August weather. Thank goodness Erin is housesitting and taking care of all my plants!
In the midst of unboxing, setting up the 'puter and running out and getting stuff we hadn't thought of, down the dorm hall comes a gal handing out fliers from the campus socialists. Siobhan heaved a sigh and handed it to me (I'll scan it when I get home). It's a hoot! Entitled "Fight the right!" one cannot help but laugh at the chuckleheadedness of the screed
Capitalism creates the driving force behind the war in Iraq, the destruction of the environment and the attacks on abortion rights.Jaysus, Mary and Joseph -- outside of the obvious lack of any kind of rational thought in that rant, one cannot help but find the delicious irony in a bunch of kids at a taxpayer funded campus on which several very high profile Capitalists have donated funds and buildings screeching against a system that allows them the opportunity for such a public tantrum.
The one thing I've always noticed about "socialists"...they really are miserable people. They are the most humorless, eager to take offense, stick up their collective asses, people you'll ever meet. They cannot even chalk their silly slogans on the sidewalks outside the dorms without wearing an expression of extreme hate.
Poor things. You want to buy them a beer and see them get well laid.
This is followed only by the irony of the faux call for the "privileged" to join the military when such high falutin' campuses of the "privileged" ban ROTC or any military recruiting. Or the false outrage of those supporters of 'Mother' Marionette. I haven't had much time yet to review all the comments in my previous posts but I see some people are arguing that no one can "authentically" support fighting the terrorists in Iraq.
Siobhan is settled, starting classes, the others took a couple of side trips and returned to town Monday night, and hubby and I are enjoying a leisurely trip down the coast. A vacation in some of the most spectacular of American landscapes.
And capitalism, the only economic system fit for human beings, makes it possible.
Posted by Darleen at 10:06 PM | Comments (12)
August 20, 2005
Battlestar Galactica - Home Part 1
While the whole season of BSG is really a full arc of a story with tangled storylines, this is the first of a two-parter returning the whole fleet to Kobol. While last week's episode advanced the storyline and startled with it revelations, this solidified the paranoia and confusion that reigns in both fractured pieces of the fleet. Do we trust Helo's Sharon? How have Starbuck's experiences on Caprica really affected her? Will Tom really follow through with assassination plans?
Most importantly, will Lee Adama ever get the stick out of his ass?
Everytime I think the writers are letting Lee grow as a character, he just annoys the shit out of me sometimes and in this episode he was particularly annoying.
Ah well. Still the best thing on television. I look forward to next week.
Posted by Darleen at 05:32 AM | Comments (0)
August 19, 2005
Yes!
Sacramento -- Tens of thousands of California sex offenders would be forced to wear electronic tracking devices for the rest of their lives under two new bills backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Posted by Darleen at 01:03 PM | Comments (0)
WaPo still on the anti-Roberts path
Do recall that it was the WaPo who ran and supported the nasty politicking against Roberts by allowing Robin Givhan to attack his wife and children on the Fasion pages. Now we have crap like this
Roberts Resisted Women's RightsOoooo. Aaaah. Pretty scary headline, eh? Now, let's read the first paragraph!
Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. consistently opposed legal and legislative attempts to strengthen women's rights during his years as a legal adviser in the Reagan White House, disparaging what he called "the purported gender gap" and, at one point, questioning "whether encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good."Well, that tears it. Roberts is definitely one of the "keep women barefoot and preggers in the kitchen" cavemen. Right?
F*CKING WRONG
It is not until paragraphs 12 & 13 that we find out the perfidy of WaPo's opening--His remark on whether homemakers should become lawyers came in 1985 in reply to a suggestion from Linda Chavez, then the White House's director of public liaison. Chavez had proposed entering her deputy, Linda Arey, in a contest sponsored by the Clairol shampoo company to honor women who had changed their lives after age 30. Arey had been a schoolteacher who decided to change careers and went to law school.Roberts was making a LAWYER JOKE not a 'barefoot and preggers' statement!In a July 31, 1985, memo, Roberts noted that, as an assistant dean at the University of Richmond law school before she joined the Reagan administration, Arey had "encouraged many former homemakers to enter law school and become lawyers." Roberts said in his memo that he saw no legal objection to her taking part in the Clairol contest. Then he added a personal aside: "Some might question whether encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good, but I suppose that is for the judges to decide."
Michael Getler is the WaPo's Ombudsman -- write him:
ombudsman@washpost.com
UPDATE Linda Chavez clarifies the Lawyer Joke for joke-impaired, and the just lying about Roberts' factions.
Posted by Darleen at 10:15 AM | Comments (2)
Question for the anti-death penality advocates
There is no question whatsoever that Dennis Radar aka 'BTK' engaged in the most egregious, horrifying, evil acts against other human beings imaginable.
Please explain to me why he should not be put to death.
Yes, I know the plea bargain incarcerates him for life. My question deals with the appropriateness of a death penalty in a situation of premeditated murder where the quilt of the perp is not in question.
Posted by Darleen at 09:39 AM | Comments (1)
August 18, 2005
Another parent's view
While 'Mother' Marionette and her Saddamites prance for the cameras, here's another voice that is just as authentic
I lost a son in Iraq and Cindy Sheehan does not speak for me.Read the whole thing.
Posted by Darleen at 07:17 AM | Comments (11)
'Mother' Marionette and anti-Semitism
Is Ms. Sheehan sobering a up a bit and realizing that the bored media that has been feeding her media addiction may have revealed a bit more than what she wanted? I'm not speaking of just the continued evidence of her shattered personal life but of the eyebrow raising and creepily judanhass statements, both written and spoken, by Ms. Sheehan about Israel.
Her ardent supporters/users have defended and applauded her words. Others, possibly naïve, ask why "criticizing the government Israel is considered 'anti-Semitic'?".
However, Ms. Sheehan did not criticize the "government of Israel", she criticized the nation of Israel. She, complicit or not, parrots the anti-Semitic ranting of many members of the far-Left and far-Right who have tried to make their disgust with Jews more acceptable by fig leafing it in "anti-Israel" rhetoric.
Just what else does Ms. Sheehan's mean saying, "My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel." than that hoary canard about Jews and "dual loyalty?" Just what other meaning are we to take when Ms. Sheehan states to enthusiastic applause "Israel out of Palestine" than the position that Israel has no right to exist and all problems in the Middle East would cease once the state of Israel does?
Certainly, these have been the sentiments and oft expressed feelings of the cults that have feted her. From the first ANSWER "anti-war" marches to present, the "anti-Israel" contingent has been omnipresent, including outright Jew-hatred. Even when Leftist Jewish Michael L , that the judanhass rhetoric needed to be toned down, the reaction was to get rid of Michael.
As Sharansky so eloquently states: The nation of Israel has become the World's Jew.
Despite the differences between them, however, anti-Americanism in the Islamic world and anti-Americanism in Europe are in fact linked, and both bear an uncanny resemblance to anti-Semitism. It is, after all, with some reason that the United States is loathed and feared by the despots and fundamentalists of the Islamic world as well as by many Europeans.I shall not endeavor to explain or examine the question of why Jewish history is so rife with the Jewish people being the object of the irrational and many times genocidal hatred of others. Suffice it to say from Ester to Hamas, people looking for a scapegoat for their own failures have looked to the non-threatening and peaceful Jewish people as "easy pickings."
Blaming Israel for Islamist terrorism is akin to blaming a woman who is gang-raped on her front porch.
Well, then, we are speaking of Islamism, an ideology that executes women for BEING rape victims.
Irony, these are the people Ms. Sheehan tacitly supports, the people who did kill her son.
Sometimes it is a badge of honor to be hated and considering the "morality" and "character" of those that hate Jews and support the movement to annihilate the nation of Israel, I'm proud to declare my support for Israel.
UPDATE The ever-changing story on 'Mother's' email and anti-Israel statements.
Posted by Darleen at 06:31 AM | Comments (25)
August 17, 2005
FDNY weighs in on 'Freedom Center'
The union representing New York's Bravest yesterday demanded that the controversial International Freedom Center be removed from Ground Zero.Well, DOAH. That is the whole thrust behind the "cultural" center... TO diminish 9/11, to downplay, shuffle off, divert attention from the terrorist attack against America based on an anti-Western ideology in favor of an "exhibit" of "American sins."In another blow to the cultural plans for Ground Zero, Uniformed Firefighters Association President Stephen Cassidy said the Freedom Center would "diminish the sacrifices that the 343 members of the FDNY made on 9/11. That is unacceptable."
Previous:
Posted by Darleen at 07:10 AM | Comments (4)
August 16, 2005
Islamist terrorism in Los Angeles
Presto Pundit has the write-up on the story I heard covered this morning on my local KFI640 am radio, broken by Eric Leonard:
Two men recently arrested on suspicion of committing armed robberies in Torrance and Fullerton were Muslim converts who are now suspected of planning a variety of jihad-inspired terror attacks around Los Angeles, including one scheduled for September 11, 2005, KFI NEWS has learned.I've posted about gangbangers before here and especially how too many local politicians like to keep a lid on any publicity concerning local gangs. They don't want the citizens alarmed.Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21, and Levar Haney Washington, 25, planned to shoot up a military recruiting station in Santa Monica and at least one other civilian target, a high-ranking federal law enforcement source confirmed recently.
“The intent was to kill everyone at the target, including civilians,” the source said ..
Well, when it looks like the thug violence is now being channeled into jihadism and giving these creatures a chance to murder for Allah!, then not telling the citizens what is going on is inexcusable.
Hello? City councilpersons? Local police chiefs? Start being transparently honest with your citizenry. You owe them the truth about the oft-hidden machinations of gangbangers in your area.
Yesterday, please.
Posted by Darleen at 12:58 PM | Comments (0)
Cotillion Ball XII
We are women by birth, ladies by upbringing and *itches (first consonant of your choice) when necessity arises. The vivacious and never boring gals of The Cotillion are here again to have their way with you. Check out:
A Mom and Her Blog
Girl on the Right
Mary Katharine Ham / Townhall C-Log
Not a Desperate Housewife
Posted by Darleen at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)
August 15, 2005
For those who have forgotten --
--and those who mistakenly maintain we have not or ever had goals for Iraq:
Let me be clear on what the U.S. objectives are: The United States wants Iraq to rejoin the family of nations as a freedom-loving and law-abiding member. This is in our interest and that of our allies within the region.
The United States favors an Iraq that offers its people freedom at home. I categorically reject arguments that this is unattainable due to Iraq's history or its ethnic or sectarian make-up. Iraqis deserve and desire freedom like everyone else. The United States looks forward to a democratically supported regime that would permit us to enter into a dialogue leading to the reintegration of Iraq into normal international life.
Posted by Darleen at 10:51 AM | Comments (13)
Monday musings
Well, that was fun! Woke up about an hour a go to a very active thunderstorm (which is not the norm in So Cal, especially in August). Watched from our bedroom window across the valley as lightening flashed and thunder rumbled in continuous disharmony. Now it has settled down to a steady rain.
Saturday we had a great deal of fun with the twins. My 10 y/o stepson has been with us this month and each time the twins have been over they just love playing with him. They follow him around like puppies and enjoy shouting for him if he leaves the room. Sunday was dedicated chores and puttering as the trip to install Siobhan in her dorm next week looms.
Which is one of those amusing things I learned from the cultists that decided my pity for Ms. Sheehan, their marionette, is nothing but a hatefilled screed attacking her imminent sainthood -- my daughter(s) have no rights to make their own decisions about their own lives. If Ms. Sheehan can disrespect the decision of her own adult son,Casey Sheehan, who am I to respect the decisions of mine?
Like Tom Cruise's mindbending Scientology rant against Brooke Shields and psychiatry, the Leftist cult members ramble in logic defying patterns where it concerns anyone anywhere supporting the military outside of the We support the military when they shoot their officers Lefty meme.
The attack goes something like this:
A person is not allowed to support the US military if none of their family has ever served -- HOWEVER
if there are veterans in the family, the goal post is moved to CURRENT service -- HOWEVER
if there are family members in current service they have to actually be in Iraq right now -- HOWEVER
if they are in Iraq right now they have to be an immediate family member -- HOWEVER
if they are an immediate family member they must have been wounded or dead -- HOWEVER
if they have been wounded or dead and you are still sympathetic and/or supportive of their mission in Iraq YOUR VIEWS ARE STILL INAUTHENTIC.
Like Cruise's screed that Brooke Shields never needed anything but vitamins and exercise, the Leftist cultists believe anyone not adhering to their beliefs about the US military is either brainwashed or evil.
Funny, when looking over the cultists' meme one is amused to find they don't seem to understand their own argument is essentially that no one should be allowed to hold an elected federal office unless they are a combat veteran. Is a complete militarization of Congress and the Exec. Branches what they really want??
I'm amused. You?
I've actually been rather kind to Ms. Sheehan in not holding her 100% responsible for her statements but holding the cults around her that are exploiting her grief and using her much more culpable. I'm not allowed to comment on Ms. Sheehan's "private" life? Now just when has she kept it private? Cindy's OWN WORDS
I have lost almost every friend that I had before Casey died. My husband and I are separated, because he doesn't support my activities, although he knows the war is a lie.As I said before, the tactic of a cult is to separate the target member from their "old" life. Cut them off from family and friends. Looks like the cults have succeeded infamously with Ms. Sheehan. And who put these words in Ms. Sheehan's mouth?
My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel.Rhetorical question really. Crawford "Peace" House (Solomonia has the low-down on this anti-Semitic group that has pulled their info off their main site... Solomon has it via Google cache) was pulling the marionette string on that one. For them, the state of Israel has no right to exist at all.You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine.
Of course, Ms. Sheehan's judanhass statements are gathering her increased support from like-minded people -- David Duke:
Courageously she has gone to Texas near the ranch of President Bush and braved the elements and a hostile Jewish supremacist media to demand a meeting with him and a good explanation why her son and other’s sons and daughters must die and be disfigured in a war for Israel rather than for America.(h/t LGF)Recently, she had the courage to state the obvious that her son signed up in the military to protect America not to die for Israel.
More proof that Ms. Sheehan has ceased to be a real person to the cultists can be readily found from the KosKiddies strategy outline which includes points (excerpts):
- We should call her “Mother Sheehan”. We should never call her Cindy
- We should not use the name of her son.
- The right will try to INDIVIDUALIZE and SPECIALIZE her complaint. We must try to make her cry the UNIVERSAL and ETERNAL cry of all mothers
- If there are any persons who are theatre professionals at the Sheenan vigil, they should arrange things much more theatrically.
- I would not let Mother Sheehan talk to the press, but I would have her talk only through a spokesperson. In particular, I would not allow her to argue with critics, and would allow no critics to approach her.
Pity her.
Posted by Darleen at 05:24 AM | Comments (10)
August 13, 2005
The Dance of the Marionette - Photoshop alert
Click for larger image
August has always been a "slow news" month -- usually filled with shark attacks, camping accidents or missing people like the sad, but overplayed, Natalee Holloway story. So poor Cindy Sheehan is being followed, photographed and feted like the next sob-sister story right out of a scene from Chicago.
Michelle Malkin notes that the Washington Post finally gets to the crux of the story, down about paragraph #18.
but there it is--an acknowledgement that Cindy Sheehan has changed her account of her first meeting with President Bush, which occurred two months after her son's death in April 2004Kevin at Wizbang runs a picture that Cindy has removed from her website of her meeting with the President.
This woman is clearly suffering. Even her personal life is crumbling around her, increasingly because her of zealousness encouraged by the cult groups using her. As Angry in the T.O. points out, Cindy cannot help being deluded in how she protrays the participation of her own immediate family. [I wonder if the flying monkeys in my previous post will continue the illusion that her estranged husband and out-of-country children are "100%" with Cindy]
Another telling sign that the cults surrounding Cindy are beyond even the Democrat pale is the conspicuous absence of the usual anti-military Dem politicos at Cindy's side. Boxer? Kennedy? Pelosi? Nope. Not there. Just the freak sideshow participants of Code Pink or Crawford "Peace" House
Even the very liberal newspaper, Seattle PI realizes the undignified and indecent circus surrounding Cindy:
Trouble is Sheehan is not sincerely interested in meeting Bush for a private, heartfelt chat about her understandable anguish and lingering questions.That's what Cindy has been reduced to. Just another paper mache puppet, a marionette on strings, a dancing spectacle to fill column inches next to shark attacks and lightening strikes.She wants to make a public splash by allowing critics of the unjustified war in Iraq to use her as a human bazooka against Bush, who got us into this war mess. ...
Sheehan's Texas tantrum wittingly or unwittingly abets left-leaning forces that are happy to use her to get at the president.(sic)
Posted by Darleen at 10:22 AM | Comments (74)
Battlestar Galactica - The Farm
This episode delivered on every level and proves again that the writers and actors are giving us fully rounded characters...no, people to care about.
Yes, Adama is finally back. It is an emotional reception he walks into, for him as well as his command. But he isn't the O'IronSides that is just picking up where he left off when he was shot. He is angry, physically still weak, and all that has gone on is having it's toll. You see the play of emotions in his eyes -- and this is where the strength of Olmos' acting just shines -- with small movements across his face, in the slight change of timber in his voice. When Adama has outbursts they're startling in contrast. The scene of him in the morgue with Boomer's body was emotionally wrenching.
Adama's strengths (and moments of emotional doubt) are mirrored in Roslin. She knows what she has to do, yet she is still catches herself in moments of humility demonstrated by the scene in which those that follow her kneel and seek her blessings.
Now, let's talk about the surreal and well played scenes of Starbuck in the "hospital." Nicely underplayed and well shot to keep us, like Starbuck, off balance and questioning her well-deserved paranoia, the writers also dropped bonus information in the scenes about Starbuck's background. Besides adding yet another facet to our attempts to understand her inner demons, you know that this information is going to come back again in a later episode.
AND, we are getting more information on the Cylons themselves, regardless of the toaster models, the biologically based Cylons have some very telling problems ... they cannot naturally reproduce regardless of cloned copies. This is ultimately a fatal flaw in their success as a new race and sheds light on some of the desperation and possible dissension we have seen hints of within the clones. Helo's Boomer, if we accept that she does truly love Helo and is pregnant, seems to have gone renegade. And just like the information about Starbuck's past was woven in her scenes with the doctor, I recall from the first season some heated arguing between a Six clone and Helo's Boomer about the nature of love and how it would affect them. Also, an even earlier, almost a throwaway scene, when Helo was first on Caprica, where a Six clone seemed to be ready to help him (and seduce him) and was then executed by another Cylon.
Wheels within wheels.
Last night's episode was one of the best of this season to date, and really moved all the story lines forward.
Posted by Darleen at 12:07 AM | Comments (2)
August 12, 2005
'Message to Cindy Sheehan'
While some of the cultists are babbling talking points in the comments in the previous post (and I blame them, not Cindy, for her psychic break), Patterico points to a poignant piece addressed to Cindy from Mohammed at Iraq the Model
know how you feel Cindy, I lived among the same pains for 35 years but worse than that was the fear from losing our loved ones at any moment. Even while I'm writing these words to you there are feelings of fear, stress, and sadness that interrupt our lives all the time but in spite of all that I'm sticking hard to hope which if I didn't have I would have died years ago.Do go read the rest.Ma'am, we asked for your nation's help and we asked you to stand with us in our war and your nation's act was (and still is) an act of ultimate courage and unmatched sense of humanity.
Our request is justified, death was our daily bread and a million Iraqi mothers were expecting death to knock on their doors at any second to claim someone from their families.
Your face doesn't look strange to me at all; I see it everyday on endless numbers of Iraqi women who were struck by losses like yours.Our fellow country men and women were buried alive, cut to pieces and thrown in acid pools and some were fed to the wild dogs while those who were lucky enough ran away to live like strangers and the Iraqi mother was left to grieve one son buried in an unfound grave and another one living far away who she might not get to see again.
We did nothing to deserve all that suffering, well except for a dream we had; a dream of living like normal people do.
We cried out of joy the day your son and his comrades freed us from the hands of the devil and we went to the streets not believing that the nightmare is over.
We practiced our freedom first by kicking and burning the statues and portraits of the hateful idol who stole 35 years from the life of a nation.
For the first time air smelled that beautiful, that was the smell of freedom.The mothers went to break the bars of cells looking for the ones they lost 5, 12 or 20 years ago and other women went to dig the land with their bare hand searching for a few bones they can hold in their arms after they couldn't hold them when they belonged to a living person. ...
Your son sacrificed his life for a very noble cause…No, he sacrificed himself for the most precious value in this existence; that is freedom.
Posted by Darleen at 08:03 PM | Comments (18)
Cindy Sheehan -- classic cult victim
Cindy has been encouraged to isolate herself from her family. Her husband, Casey Sheehan's father, is aghast at Cindy's undignified posturing and, well let's face it boldly, lying. As we know, classic cult tactics is to isolate the victim, turn them against their own families, make the victim totally dependant on them.
And the cults surrounding Cindy would be laughably loony if they weren't so disturbing in their veiled anti-American rhetoric and they way they've gotten Cindy to perform like marionette for a bored, nihilistic "mainstream" media who have become so lazy they cannot even rouse themselves to do the minimum of vetting of Cindy and the cults.
Crawford "Peace" House, themselves, are an anti-Semitic fringe group.
Look at the picture of Cindy and wonder at her "GW was having a party" statement. Cindy needs psychological help. Desperately.
More at
Michelle Malkin
Jeff Goldstein
Posted by Darleen at 01:07 PM | Comments (30)
August 11, 2005
Cindy Sheehan -- to be pitied
What a sad soul, to be so wracked by grief as to become undignified in public.
The polite thing to do is to avert one's eyes and to realize she is under the kind of stress that no parent wants to experience. She is really no different than mothers of sons of any other war whose grief twists them to blame everything and everyone except the killers of their beloved child.
If there is any better indication of the moral depravity of what passes for modern "journalism" is all the airtime/column inches devoted to exploiting Mrs. Sheehan's grief ... for ratings, for glee, for other agendas.
Unbelievable.
Posted by Darleen at 01:15 PM | Comments (5)
Another one fades away ...
My friend at work lost her father a few days ago. She's asked me to scan some photos for her to be displayed at his funeral. I was quite impressed by the wonderful portrait of him from the 1940's in army uniform.
He was with the Army Big Red One. He was with them landing on the shores of Normandy and fighting into the German interior.
One by one we are losing the Greatest Generation. And losing even the incentive to understand the history of the era without desolving into petty partisan sniping.
It makes me sad on so many levels.
Posted by Darleen at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2005
Zombies got nothing ...
... when it comes to EATING BRAINS like some drugs do. PET scans show meth use makes literal holes in the brain.
So color me a little shocked when I read, via Jeff Harrell that the NYTimes columnist John Tierny decides, well ... meth
was never as dangerous as alcohol in the first placeWhaa....? This is obviously a man who has never seen tweakers up close and personal. The mind boggles reading how John feels all the problems associated with meth are ones of regulation. It's the cops fault!
I'll admit, right here and now, I had a similar libertarian attitude towards drugs. But that was in the 70's, when I was young and naive about drugs, addiction and the effects on family and community.
What's Tierney's excuse?
UPDATE Mark Kleiman slices, dices and charbroils Tierney with the aplomb of an Iron Chef. (h/t Jeff Goldstein)
Posted by Darleen at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)
Note to trolls
Ya know, when you have an problem with me and my views on something, especially if you've followed me from the comments on another site, why not be honest about the issue instead of flaming MY DAUGHTERS.
Foul mouth? Fuck yeah. Especially when appropriate like dealing with your ilk.
Posted by Darleen at 12:16 PM | Comments (1)
Truly funny ... !!!
Oh my. Please, you gotta put down your morning cup of coffee and see this -- William Shatner sings...er...interprets ... Rocket Man
Circa 1978
'nuf said
Posted by Darleen at 12:10 AM | Comments (1)
August 09, 2005
Adopting while White --
Not enough, I do not have enough profanity.
I thought once the New York Times was publicly spanked for their attempt to get at the Roberts children's sealed adoption records this episode would rightfully fade away.
Certainly, this couldn't be a partisan issue? Certainly decent people were justifiably outraged that the thought of destruction of the lives of two preschoolers never even crossed the brain of the people who greenlighted this “lets see if we can get those adoption records” sleaze tactic.
WHAT.THE.FUCK then am I reading on Leftist and Left-leaning blogs supporting the NYTimes "investigation" and making excuses because the Roberts' adoption is weird (warning... a link to Asstrios -- the reprehensible Duncan Black[heart]). The concurrent little diddy in the comments there and elsewheres runs something like
"hey man, it's not like the story got printed! It's you rightwingers driving this thing.And watch for the regular appearance of the Karl Rove Voodoo Doll™, a Leftist amulet to be waved about in order to avoid reasoned discourse.
So, listen up all you pernicious pettifoggers, you oozing-sore diseased souls who would cheerfully dance on the bloody bodies of children as long as the children come from the Evil Conservative families*
*good god, I just got a sense of deja vu. This is Alec Baldwin's rant to drag Republicans, their wives and children, into the streets and "kill 'em all."The reason the NYTimes didn't go FURTHER with their "investigation" was because SOMEONE BLEW THE WHISTLE on them..it got OUT and suddenly an editor says [lines first run by a cabal of lawyers. of course] some reporters "got a little ahead of themselves" and the NYTimes is not going to do any "gratuitous" stories on the Roberts' preschoolers.
Got that? The decent people (of all political stripes) who were outraged enough to email/call/write the NYTimes got the dirt-digging stopped....as far as the NYTimes goes. We now witness bottom-dwelling scum suckers still trying to make excuses for the inexcusible. A crass, immoral variation on the old "have you stopped beating your wife?" schtick. Now it's "I find it weird there are white people in Latin America. Roberts must have done something illegal to get those aryan kids down there."
Good lord, are these morally-bankrupt hooligans also so flippin' provincial and ignorant to think there is nothing but an unbroken blanket of "brown skin" from TJ to Cape Horn? And they are unashamed to demonstrate such nose-picker obliviousness?
Everytime I think losers can't sink lower, I'm unfortunately proved wrong.
Next on the "Get Roberts Agenda"... "Remember the CoatHanger!" harridans at NARAL run an ad that Roberts has given support to people who bomb abortion clinics. Fuck 'em. Fuck 'em all.
Also see:
Jeff Goldstein
John Cole
UPDATE: food for thought from Jay Tea
Posted by Darleen at 06:56 PM | Comments (1)
Puzzle me this one, please
Friday night daughters Heather and Siobhan were in a car accident. Nothing really serious, a couple of bruises and Heather's beloved Mustang (which she just paid off one month ago - 3 years ahead of schedule - doncha know?) is going to be in the shop for 2-3 weeks. The girls were waiting at a redlight when a man fully blew the redlight from the other direction and slammed into another car. Heather and Siobhan went from "God, look at that!" to "no..no NO...OH SHIT!!!" as the man's car spun and slammed into the driver's side front quarterpanel of the Mustang, pushing them over a lane and a half.
Siobhan is immediately out the passenger side, cell phone in hand dialling 911 and trying to make sure everyone is ok.
The good stuff: People in the immediate neighborhood, some in their pajamas, come running with blankets and asking if anyone is hurt and needs assistance.
The weird stuff: "Rubberneckers" are going to happen. It's just the human condition to slow down at an accident for a good looksee. But Siobhan was first surprised, then down right pissed, at the number of cars slowing down and people leaning out the windows to take pictures. Digital cameras, camera phones -- she said every time she looked around someone was snapping pics on their way by. It got so ubiquitous that she wanted to shout, "What? I should cut myself on some glass so I can fucking bleed for you people?"
What gives?
Posted by Darleen at 06:37 PM | Comments (2)
Cotillion Ball XI -- Disco Divas
Pull out the platform shoes, don the Spandex and gold lame, today The Cotillion goes retro! DISCO! A time to see and be seen under the glittering mirrored ball, white suits and dresses glowing in the blacklite. While real dancing was dead in the rock world, disco was where it hung out ... The Hustle, in all its incarnations, was an updated variation on Swing dancing, done to the sultry, sexy sounds of such Disco Divas as Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor.
This week, as we've done before, our own Divas will entice you, entertain you, make you think and make you laugh. Also hosting this week are: Kate at Small Dead Animals, Baldilocks, and Maxed Out Mama.
Ready to start? Hang on to my hand because you know, I'll save the last dance for you.
Tammy of A Mom And Her Blog posts how Sarasota County, FL, is going beyond just a searchable website to keep track of convicted child molesters. As I've posted before, it is startling to find out how many of these people are allowed to live within communities filled with their prey of preference.
I'm about 7 or 8 years older than Ith of Absinthe & Cookies, who recalls some of the same things I experienced as a kid while she points to an entrail-freezing story of "if or when?".
An American Housewife weighs in with a skeptical eye cast in the direction of a two-time loser NYC Dem who feels the need to ... ahem ... energize the base with the use of exotic dancers.
Raven at And Rightly So! gives two thumbs up to PM Tony Blair's forthright speech about Islamists becoming persons non grata in Britian.
Annika of annika's journal is catching up with her movie viewing and finds two films with similar plots and themes, one which garnered an Academy award. Yet which one is the better film and why? Read Annika's thorough analysis.
Ever wanted to be a TV script writer? Mrs. R of Are You Conservative? rewrites a scene from CSI:Miami to give it some Redeeming Social Value and produces a scene that ... well ... frankly, consider this your "drink warning."
Jane at Armies of Liberation does it again. She writes a masterful Week in Review of the events in Yemen. Jane proves that blogging can do what other media cannot/willnot in concentrating on a single subject with surprising breadth and depth. Excellent work.
Pamela of Atlas Shrugs has an international readership, invaluable in helping bring to light issues that get ignored in American "mainstream" media. A friend downunder brings to light the ongoing UN sex scandal of "peace-keepers". This time Aussies were told by young Timorese boys that the Jordanian "peacekeepers" were propositioning them for sex, and when the Aussies correctly reported this, they found themselves physically threatened by the Jordanians who drew their weapons. And Senate Democrats worry that John Bolton is not submissive enough to the UN!
Baldilocks (a very neat lady I've had the pleasure of meeting) has found out what one Mr. Sandy Berger has been up to since his Spinal Tap moment of having someone question the suspicious bulge in his pants.
Oddybobo at Bobo Blogger weighs in with a few words in response to aggrieved LaShawn. Always classly, Oddy puts to rest Ms. Barber's ill-considered posit about the lack of ability of women to be in leadership positions.
I love "stupid criminal stories" and Kathy at Cake Eater Chronicles had me laughing with the latest. Shows the value of :::snort:: homework.
The Cotillion's Divas not only are smart and sassy, but very caring. Janette at Common Sense Runs Wild let's you know about an injured milblogger and what we all can do to help him.
Who turned on the houselights? Where did the time go? Well, it looks like my time to whirl with you around the floor is over.
My thanks to all the fine bloggers I got to read and showcase this week and to Beth, Jody and Janette, the BlogGoddesses that made The Cotillion. And of course, my thanks to you, dear reader!
Posted by Darleen at 12:10 AM | Comments (2)
August 07, 2005
'Public' privacy
The "A"CLU's New York satrapy filed a lawsuit (natch) against New York City instituting random bag/package searches for people boarding the subway, a public conveyance. Of course, this should surprise no one. The "A"CLU's dedication to particular trees even at the expense of the health of the forest approaches legendary ranking. I sighed and went on to read other things.
However, this rant (and however, scholarly, it remains a rant) from Eugene Volokh aimed at the non-lawyers who are railing at the "A"CLU just begs for another look. He takes exception to Stop the ACLU blog post, specifically that blog's reprint and support of (excerpts):
The never ceasing flow of litigation against cities, states, and the federal government is nothing more than fund-raising stunts. ...Eugene's basic response is:In New York, apparently the ACLU believes these searches are unconstitutional because they are random. Although the ACLU has also called metal detectors in airports an invasion of privacy. ...
The ACLU’s abuse of the legal system is criminal. For that reason Christians Reviving America’s Values is drafting a letter asking the US Congress to investigate the ACLU for widespread use of frivolous lawsuits.
By filing lawsuits, the ACLU is exercising its (and its clients') legal rights and its (and its clients') constitutional rights ...Please, Eugene, for a moment can we please consider that sometimes doing what is legal can also be doing something immoral or unethical?
Filing an outright frivolous complaint -- which is to say one that is not "warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous [i.e., legally plausible] argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law or the establishment of new law" -- is punishable. One can already get sanctions for the filing of such frivolous complaints. But I know of no systematic pattern of the ACLU's filing such frivolous complaints.Again, this is a legally technical response to the understandable, if sometimes intemperate, anger many people feel when they see the "A"CLU yet again, fighting tooth and nail against common sense. It has been ruled that metal detectors are legal in airports and many other places considered public. It has been ruled that, by and large, people do not have "an expectation of privacy in a public place." Indeed, the NY satrapy argues in their papers they object on the grounds the (1)it won't work (2) it has the potential for abuse via "racial profiling." [am I the only one that sees the irony of that last coming from an organization that opposes any law/policy aimed at ameliorating conditions that give rise to crime?]
Yes, I can agree that describing the "A"CLU as "criminal" is intemperate, especially if looking at the adjective as a legal rather than rhetorical term.
However, corporations have a right to file any lawsuit they want to, also, but do we really find SLAPP tactics either eithical or moral??
No where is a better example that the "A"CLU engages in SLAPP-style intimidation than their suits or threats of suits across the country aimed at cities and counties that dare have even a hint of a Christian symbol on their city/county seal. See city of Redlands, CA or even Los Angeles County.
Just because something is LEGAL doesn't make it moral or ethical. Something that lawyers too often forget.
I no more am bothered by random bag searches if I choose to go on the public conveyance of a subway than I am by security at the airport or sobriety checkpoints or the metal detectors at my own courthouse. I don't labor under some delusion that the right of privacy that exists within my house is an inviolable bubble when I walk down public streets. I find certain security measures reasonable in balancing individual rights with societal responsibility to protect individuals. People with a lower threshold than mine are free to move to some hinterland cabin and fend for themselves free from any "intrusive" interference from their societal peers.
I am not a lawyer, but I work with them and have had the privilege to work with a lot of ethical, dedicated people. But I've also witnessed the kind of hubris that evolves from some who believe their JD has confered a "higher" status -- one of the chosen whose legal interpretations and pronoucements are evermore legitimate than any opinion of the lesser beings.
I know it's pretty amazing, but us non-lawyer types can be trusted to use the silverware and not our hands at the dinner table, and successfully wipe our own asses.
And we can occassionally spot the bovine excrement, even when it comes beautifully wrapped in legalese, law-cites and all.
Posted by Darleen at 09:00 AM | Comments (6)
August 06, 2005
Catching up
I went back to work yesterday, feeling much better -- until I got a look at my desk. Stood looking in stunned silence as the profanity rolled through my brain. Then I got home last night to find I was on twin duty for the whole evening. I love those little guys, but they did not want to go to sleep last night, so I'm bribing them into silence with cereal bars so I could watch Battlestar Galactica.
Almost 24 hours without touching my computer. Wow. ;-)
Cassandra at Villianous Company caught my attention with her Conservatives who support the Gay Judge Roberts.
The half-vast editorial staff thinks John Roberts is pretty, too. And though we rather doubt he is gay, if he is, that's just fine with us. Frankly, we don't give a damn.You go, girlfriend! Republicans put the first woman on the SCOTUS and it'll spike a few crackpipes of the Left when the "O'Connor chair" goes to the first gay.He'll be in good company. After all, there's some pretty underwhelming evidence from the Left that W is gay, but durnitall, we voted for him anyway.
I again find myself with little or nothing to add to a fine Jeff Harrell post. Blair's shot across the bow of the radical moslems in Britian is, indeed, a "Patriot Act" moment. I've always noted with amusement that the most histrionic claims about PA cannot be sourced. I've actually read some of PA (not all... the legalese is the best sleep inducer since a sheetshredding orgasm, with none of the fun) and I can't find all those black helicopter licenses I keep hearing about.
I'm ambivalent about Hiroshima's marking the anniversay of the bombing. The ceremony had doves and silence and a ringing bronze bell. I have no problem with respectful remembrance of the dead. But in reading the article there is absolutely no sense that those "remembering" have a clue on why Hiroshima or Nagasaki were bombed. It seems to exist in hermetically-sealed isolation, cutoff from all historical context. Very worrisome.
Jeremy Corbyn, a lawmaker in the governing Labour Party and vocal anti-war campaigner, urged people to remember the "unique horror" of what happened in 1945.And Corbyn is the type of Leftist whore who refuses to acknowledge that this was not "unique." Such a view might interfere with his anti-American agenda (he's on the steering committee of Stop the War ... a lovely group of people whose response to 3000 Americans slaughtered on 9/11 was to immediately organize to blame America for the event.)
Posted by Darleen at 09:58 AM | Comments (2)
Battlestar Galactica -- Resistance
The episode opens with Col. Tigh looking decidedly like Capt. Queeg, heavy stubble, blood-shot squinty eyes, vile, irrational temper and constant fondling of the silver flask (a stand-in for the infamous marbles). He hates command but hangs onto it and we get even a further glimpse into this man's basic personal dysfunctions including his relationship with wife, Ellen. Like an idiot savant, Tigh is great in the narrowly defined role Adama had him in, and under Adama's command. Tigh is disasterous out of it and the riot on one of the supply ships that results in civilian deaths could be forseen by everyone except Tigh. Tigh put his own distaste with dealing with the civilian government and politics above longterm goals when he instituted martial law and fractured the loyalties of even the members of the Galactica. Ellen? Humbly, I still believe she's a Cylon.
And as much as Adama has been the dominate Father/Leader/Savior character of the first season, he is not perfect and has let his own temper and personality flaws lend themselves to tragic consequences. He cannot be let off the hook for his own contribution to dissension in the ranks when he "deposed" President Roslin. Sometimes a person's greatest asset can perversly become their greatest liability. In Adama's case his pragmatic grasp of using the legend of Earth to unite the frantic survivors coupled with his own strength of personality (hallmark of a great military commander) and self-confidence has held the fragile fleet together. However, it has closed him off to considering Roslin as little more than a necessary annoyance. He has failed to grasp the power of the legend he himself used and dismisses the power of faith in a leader to unite people. Roslin is showing a strength of character that equals, if not surpasses, Adama's at this point. It's also a complimentory stength and really makes one gasp at the possibilities if these two ever become true partners rather than the suspicious sniping they have engaged in.
The show doesn't flinch from the violence and paranoia, finding a balance that hasn't yet fallen into gratituous. When people are hit, you can feel the hurt.
Starbuck and Helo's journey on Caprica has taken an interesting side turn. I had to grin at the description of the survivors besides the Pyramid team -- "some hikers and survivalists." These little nuggets of nostalgia, like Starbuck sitting in her apartment listening to recording of her father playing the piano, underline the bitterness they feel at a life they can never get back.
Baltar has moved from self-serving sleaze into enigma. How much is he doing Six's bidding (and how much is Six still part of the Cylon's plan rather than now into her own agenda)?
The episode comes full circle at the end with the death of Boomer (and the direction seemed curiously reminiscent of the Jack Ruby/Lee Harvey Oswald shooting) and Adama conscious and demanding to know "what's been going on on my ship?" The next episode will be interesting to see what, if any effect, Adama's brush with death has on him.
Posted by Darleen at 08:13 AM | Comments (2)
August 05, 2005
PM Blair's big talk
Tony Blair tosses down the gauntlet
LONDON - Foreigners who preach hatred, sponsor violence or belong to extremist groups could be deported from Britain under strict new measures that Prime Minister Tony Blair announced Friday, nearly a month after suicide bombers killed 52 people on London's transit system.All well and good. But can he make it fly?Membership in extremist Islamic groups such as Hizb-ut-Tahrir would become a crime under the new measures. The group, which advocates the creation of an Islamic state in Central Asia, already is outlawed in several countries.
Blair said the government also would compile a list of Web sites, bookshops and centers that incite hatred and violence. British nationals involved with such organizations could face strict penalties. Foreign nationals could be deported, he said.
"They come here and they play by our rules and our way of life," Blair said at his monthly news conference. "If they don't, they are going to have to go."
A spokesman for Hizb ut Tahrir Britain, Imran Waheed, said Blair's comments were "most unjust," and the group would fight any ban through the courts.Well, DOAH. GW can not even whisper this kind of proposal here without the "A"CLU and other terrorist enabling organizations marshalling a phalanx of lawyers and street puppets to file lawsuits and posture for the "news" media about "Fascist" Bush and his "further" errosion of American rights.
"You only have to read the demands coming from al-Qaida to realize there is no compromise possible with these people," Blair said.Jaysus on a Pony, I'm glad Blair has finally seen the light, but what the hell took so long?
Posted by Darleen at 06:16 AM | Comments (0)
August 04, 2005
Desperation at the Grey Lady -- Get Roberts' Kids!
The NEW YORK TIMES is looking into the adoption records of the children of Supreme Court Nominee John G. Roberts, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.I just don't have enough swear words at my disposal to adequately express my utter contempt and outrage at such clearly despicable and indecent behavior on the part of the NYT editorial staff.The TIMES has investigative reporter Glen Justice hot on the case to investigate the status of adoption records of Judge Roberts’ two young children, Josie age 5 and Jack age 4, a top source reveals.
Judge Roberts and his wife Jane adopted the children when they each were infants.
Both children were adopted from Latin America.
Previously the WASHINGTON POST Style section had published a story criticizing the outfits Mrs. Roberts had them wear at the announcement ceremony.
May they rot in Hell.
UPDATE but of course, never let it be said that ::gag::choke::puke:: Conservatives ever adopt children save for the most puerile of reasons. TBogg is on the case (h/t Jeff Goldstein)
I'm waiting for an article that questions a man and his wife building high-powered careers, marrying late, and then, in their mid-forties, adopting infants to accessorize their public profiles. When these kids are graduating from high school, their parents will be in their sixties. I'm all for adoption, but I cringe when I see middle-aged successful couples adopt children to decorate their lives in an effort to "have it all".Hmmm ... a cursory mucking through Bogg's dementia fails to reveal a daily dose of snark towards John and Elizabeth Edwards who also "decorated their lives" with a couple of young ones when they hit their 50's.
Posted by Darleen at 09:46 AM | Comments (11)
Selected readings from the sickbed
Did not have a good night, what with the waking up to stuff my lungs back into place after hacking them up onto my pillow and all. Yeah yeah, violin time. What to do? Well, maybe a random act of kindness ...
Jeff Harrell reminded me this morning about Kate. Geez, I got nut'n to moan about when Kate has added her name in the casebook for Murphy's Law. I just made a donation to the fang fund. You? (Update on FF here)
Brian Maloney with the lastest on the Air America Scandal. As he points out, 8 days and no comment from the Grey Lady herself (even though some 2nd assistant or something is attempting to assuage criticism by saying We are closely watching this story). Yeah, sure. Just like the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark when the bureaucratic wonk says, "We have top men working on it now."
When I read this I groaned.
A recent Justice Department report on the threat posed by gangs underestimated the number of gang members nationwide because thousands of police agencies refused to provide information about their jurisdictions.What the heck is so surprising about that? Most cities and towns don't want to publicize that they have a gang problem! Clue -- do you ever spot odd looking grafitti around your town? Not a "Joanie loves Chachi" thing, or high school rivalry stuff, I mean something that looks like writing but you can't really make out what it says? Gang sign, people. Gang sign. Talk to your local pd and don't take "tagging crew" as an answer or excuse.The surprising lack of cooperation by police agencies means the Justice Department's estimate of more than 700,000 gang members nationwide could be too low by at least 200,000, said Patrick Word, vice chairman of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Gang Investigators Network, a group that helps collect data for the Justice Department.
And speaking of gangbanging, here's the latest from Islamist terrorists who make even the Mexican Mafia look like a First Communion class
Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri has warned the United States and Britain of more attacks, saying they would not rest in peace until they pulled their troops from Iraq and other Muslim states.Now why shouldn't this creature offer such threats? Leftists in this country and in Briton (such as Galloway and Red Ken Livingston) have shown they are on the same page as Zawahri. When the Leftist cult is not openly working against America and her allies, they encourage submission and surrender at every turn."What you have seen in New York, Washington and Afghanistan, are only the initial losses," he said, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States for which al Qaeda claimed responsibility.
"If you continue the same hostile policies you will see something that will make you forget the horrors you have seen in Vietnam," added Zawahri in the tape aired by Al Jazeera television.
"Our message to you is clear, strong and final: There will be no salvation until you withdraw from our land, stop stealing our oil and resources and end support for infidel, corrupt (Arab) rulers," Zawahri said.
But DON'T question their patriotism!!
Posted by Darleen at 08:45 AM | Comments (0)
August 03, 2005
Stockings and Broken Windows - revisited
My first post with this title is here where I explored the link between the Boomer's rejection of social convention to todays coarser society and much much more control of behavior via law and code
Ironic, isn't it, as people like [Michael] Moore have sneered at societal conventions that used values and expectations to guide individuals on the proper way of treating each other have gained the upper hand in society, more than ever have we had to enact laws to govern behavior. From university speech codes to work place dress codes to statutes that define "hostile work environment" to include behavior that at one time would only be considered obnoxious, we've moved from a society that controlled the coarser elements by voluntary convention to reams of laws and codes defining the most minute of behavior.I bring this up because you coulda bowled me over with feather as I read an article that will be appearing in the UK Daily Mail tomorrow written by Joan Collins (yes, that Joan Collins) which is featured right now on The Drudge ReportThis constitutes a freer society than the one of the 40/50's the boomers rejected?
I believe that when a country loses so much respect for itself that it can no longer even be identified by its historically correct name, insecurity and lack of respect filter down to its inhabitants.And let's add that a prime reflection on how some English take it even further and preach hatred of their own country in foreign press -- I present you with the remarks of MP George Galloway [h/t Jeff Goldstein] to the Arab news media:Recently, I have concluded that London is no longer the 'seat of civilised society' that the world once considered it to be, and is certainly not the safe city I grew up in. ...
We've become the 'Whatcha lookin' at?' culture. Why do young people consider it cool to be arrogant, swaggering and rude? Why do so many people in England seem so cynical and self-centred?
I witnessed young, drunken yobs roaming the streets kicking cars, screaming insults, pushing people and even pushchairs out of their way, attacking each other viciously and then turning on the police when they tried to maintain order.
THE WHOLE scene evoked the image of hordes of inebriated Vikings sacking devastated towns. Even during the day, feral mobs roamed the cities with absolute disregard for anyone else's property or well-being. Traditional virtues of male chivalry and female propriety were very far from view.
After all, a lack of manners and politeness in a society can only be a reflection of what the society thinks of itself.
It's not the Muslims who are sick. It's Bush and Blair and Berlusconi who are sick. It's not the Muslims who need to be cured. It's the imperialist countries that need to be cured.If Galloway is not talking sedition or treason, then those words have lost all meaning.
....
Two of your beautiful daughters are in the hands of foreigners - Jerusalem and Baghdad. The foreigners are doing to your daughters as they will. The daughters are crying for help, and the Arab world is silent. And some of them are collaborating with the rape of these two beautiful Arab daughters. Why? Because they are too weak and too corrupt to do anything about it.
....
America is losing the war in Iraq, and even the Americans now admit it. Even the puppet ministers and regime in Baghdad know it. The former puppet minister (Iyad) Allawi admitted it three times in the last month. America is losing the war in Iraq. And this will not change. The resistance is getting stronger every day, and the will to remain as an occupier by Britain and America is getting weaker everyday. Therefore, it can be said, truly said, that the Iraqi resistance is not just defending Iraq. They are defending all the Arabs, and they are defending all the people of the world from American hegemony.
....
It's not the Muslims who are the terrorists. The biggest terrorists are Bush, and Blair, and Berlusconi, and Aznar, but it is definitely not a clash of civilizations. George Bush doesn't have any civilization, he doesn't represent any civilization. We believe in the Prophets, peace be upon them. He believes in the profits, and how to get a piece of them. That's his god. That's his god. George Bush worships money. That's his god - Mammon.
Posted by Darleen at 06:28 PM | Comments (0)
PSA
I live in CA and working at a DA office can be tough if only for the fact one has to walk a thin line between taking cases too personally and becoming jaded with how too many humans behave. I've actually avoided a particular website for some time -- only because I just didn't really want to confirm my worst suspicions. However, I did visit. I was still shocked and I think it is really my duty to pass it on. For Californians, this site maintained by out state government under Megan's Law very easily provides you with the information on convicted child molesters in your neighborhood. The maps are provided by Thomas Bros. and you can search by any number of criteria, including by zip code. Once the map loads, offenders are indicated by a little blue square, which you can click for a popup window that provides startling information, including a picture of the offender. Obviously, as the website makes clear, this is for your information only and the state of CA will prosecute anyone that uses the info to illegally harass or harm the offender or his/her family.
Each state is allowed to figure out the details of their own sex registries. The FBI maintains a list of links to those states, like California, who have websites on sex offenders.
Please check your state and neighborhood.
Posted by Darleen at 04:35 PM | Comments (0)
Sheesh, someone else indulging in whine
Pretty much I give the alleyway where the "evolutionist" and the "intelligent designer/creator" rumble a wide berth. What I have to say on the subject just annoys them both and I see no percentage in getting shot at from all sides.
That said, if you want to understand what all the hoorah is about with President Bush's horrifying statement that education means being exposed to all ideas then visit Jeff Goldstein's excellent post, check out the plethora of links at the top (then revel in the comments). Also check out Patterico.
I'd like to point out an ancillary statement by the predictably hysterical Barney Frank in regards to the President's statement. Oh, of course his first reaction is the usual running in circles shrieking "The Xtian Fundies are coming! Save yourselves!" but then comes this one:
People might cite George Bush as proof that you can be totally impervious to the effects of Harvard and Yale education.I guess this is where Democrat Frank confesses that the proper mission of US universities is turning out atheists?
Interesting.
Posted by Darleen at 01:03 PM | Comments (2)
Serving a nice full glass of whine
I'm sick.
No ... I mean physically sick [yes, you, enjoy your snickering]. It's not enough that yet another "chiller" at work went out meaning that the office temp was slowing rising, but it feels like there's a small encampment of orcs on my chest and I sound like a fog horn when coughing ... to the point several co-workers came by and said in a chorus of concern ...
"Shit Darleen! Go home before you infect the rest of us! Thoughtless wench."
So, here I am, in bed with my laptop and wondering when the drugs kick in for a nap.
I hate being sick. Maybe we moms just outgrow it, because when I was little, being sick was laying in bed with my mom serving me cinnamon toast and warm milk, Vicks Vapo-rub on my chest and the tiny black & white tv on my dresser so I could watch afternoon cartoons.
:::sniff::: I want someone to get me some toast!
Posted by Darleen at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)
August 02, 2005
Cotillion Ball X -- come dance with us
Yesterday I had a relaxing day with my daughters. Today it's time to put on the dance shoes and stepout with the hottest gals in the blogsphere. It's our TENTH Cotillion, let the party begin!
Sisu
Portia Rediscovered
Ilyka Damen
KelliPundit
I'm honored to be a host again of the Cotillion Ball next Tuesday
Posted by Darleen at 12:48 PM | Comments (0)
August 01, 2005
Air America Radio Scandal
Just doing my part* to contribute to the coverage. Keyplayer in driving this story is Brian Maloney and his latest is here.
Hugh Hewitt gives some nitty-gritty background here and here.
The Philly Inquirer did have this story on AA last month, and note that it does not distinguish between the Air America of spring 2004 and Air America of today. That's because it doesn't matter who "borrowed" the money from the kids and the Alzheimer's patients. It matters where the money went --which was into Al Franken's already well lined pockets, as well as the pockets of everyone else receiving Air America paychecks at the time of the diversion.Along with Brian Maloney, Michelle Malkin owns this story. Follow the links and wonder, What did Franken know and when did he know it?
*I created the graphic at the open request of Brian Maloney
Posted by Darleen at 08:05 AM | Comments (1)
Scandal in Germany over Hitler?
Did you know that a new college textbook on history, 1800 to present, is being recalled because it contains a historic picture of the burned bodies of Hitler and his mistress? According to sources, objection is based on the fact the picture and text "failed to present a balanced view of Adolf Hitler's situation."
Shocking, right?
Oops, I made a mistake. It wasn't Hitler that's not getting a balanced view, but Saddam Hussein
A telephone company in Brazil has been forced to stop selling a phone card that depicts ex-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein under arrest.
Prosecutors in Sao Paulo demanded Telefonica remove the cards from sale or face charges of inciting violence and racial intolerance.The card also failed to present a balanced view of Saddam Hussein's situation, they added.
The card was issued in June as part of a series illustrating "World History".
In the picture a scruffy and bedraggled Saddam Hussein is shown with two coalition soldiers, one of whom is pointing a gun at him.
"Telefonica regrets the trouble caused to the public and our clients by this phone card carrying a historic picture from the war in Iraq," the company said in a statement.
The ousted Iraqi leader is undergoing questioning over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, and is expected to stand trial in Iraq as early as September.
Posted by Darleen at 07:46 AM | Comments (0)