Outreach to Terrorists...

...or, "Clueless in the White House". With his appearance and speech last Wednesday at the Washington DC mosque, one begins to wonder if George W. Bush has finally been driven "round the bend" by the six year cacophony of hatred he has been subjected to by the leftists and their enablers in the media. Can he really entertain the flight of fancy that the New York Times , Washington Post and the broadcast networks will cease in their hatred of him simply because he mouths the words of their leftist dogmas?

At Wednesday’s rededication ceremony of the Saudi-funded Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., President Bush missed a perfect opportunity to repudiate apologism for radical Islam, and instead announced his latest plan to get the Muslim world to stop hating America: appoint a special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

Bush praised the OIC, saying, “We admire and thank those Muslims who have denounced what the Secretary General of the OIC called ‘radical fringe elements who pretend that they act in the name of Islam.’” The special envoy’s mission, Bush said, would be to “listen and learn” to OIC ambassadors.

While this may sound nice, it is rooted in complete ignorance of the rampant radicalism, pro-terrorist, and anti-American sentiments routinely found in statements by the OIC and its leaders, including referring to “Islamophobia” — and not the mass slaughter of innocents in the name of Islam — the “worst form of terrorism,” as OIC did last May.

In 2002, the OIC published its “Declaration on International Terrorism.” Therein, the authors stated, amongst other outrageous claims, that there was no such thing as Palestinian terrorism, writing, “We reject any attempt to associate Islamic states or Palestinian and Lebanese resistance with terrorism.”

The 2005 Freedom House report on the Saudi-led radicalization of American mosques specifically identifies the Washington Islamic Center as a hotbed of hatred. In the past decade, I personally collected numerous copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion from the mosque. The Freedom House report chronicles the center’s extremism: imams instructed their students to distance themselves from the West, forbade Muslim students from wearing the traditional cap and gown at during University graduation, and warned that participating in American holidays was the “most dangerous form of imitating the unbelievers, the most destructive and the most prevalent among the Muslims.”

The center’s library included a Saudi text book for 11th graders that described “the role of the Jews in the corruption of the European way of life,” and that Jews used “innocuous-sounding themes as ‘progress and civilization’ or ‘individual freedom’ to destroy Europe.”

Unfortunately, despite his best intentions, the president gave the wrong speech at the wrong time. Perhaps the most telling indicator of his error was the fact that hours after his speech, CAIR, the un-indicted co-conspirator in the Hamas case in Dallas, congratulated the president on the appointment of a representative to OIC. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Mr. Bush; take a good look at the above photographs. These are the faces of the "Religion of Peace™" you are reaching out to at the cost of your nations national interest and the Constitution which you solemnly swore to preserve and protect .

Read more

A Small Victory

Fresh from yesterday's obscene shoeless groveling (his wife was mercifully out of town or she would probably have shown up in burqua or head scarf. That is, if she were permitted in the building.) at the Washington mosque President Bush pronounced his "disappointment" on the failure of the Senate to pass his comprehensive amnesty bill. The first clue that the bill was a disaster was that it was the illegitimate brain child of the Senate's most anti liberty Senators, McCain and Kennedy. That the Democrat leadership in the Senate crafted it in secret and attempted to ram it through to passage before even the Senators were accorded time to read it was the second clue. Compounding the fiasco, was President Bush attempting to twist the arms of opposing Senators to support the travesty. Apparently he does not realize that he is a lame duck who, by attempting to appease his enemies has thrown away any political capital he retained after surrendering to the left on issues such as the campaign finance law, Kennedy's huge expansion of federal oversight of the public school system and the implementation of the government prescription drug scheme. All of this is on top of mismanagement of the conflict in Iraq. Mr Bush, in his pronouncement of "disappointment" goes on to insult our intelligence in his formal statement:

"I thank the members of the Senate and members of my administration who worked so hard on the border security and immigration reform bill. I'm sorry the Senate was unable to reach agreement on the bill this morning. Legal immigration is one of the top concerns of the American people and Congress's failure to act on it is a disappointment. The American people understand the status quo is unacceptable when it comes to our immigration laws. A lot of us worked hard to see if we couldn't find a common ground - it didn't work.

Mr. President, the Senate didn't "fail to act". It sent the monstrosity to where it belongs, to the rubbish heap! What is it about the American people observing a failure to enforce the law as a ploy to achieve the political objectives of special interest groups that Mr. Bush does not understand? Even an idiot understands that years of failure to enforce the immigration laws already on the books is the real source of the people's rage. It's the ENFORCEMENT stupid, and enacting more laws while refusing to enforce existing ones is so transparent that even the most obtuse cannot be fooled.

Mr. Bush has lost what credibility he may previously have possessed. It could only be worse if he abandoned the nation to the tender mercies of "The Religion of Peace". Oh. I forgot. He has started down that path already.
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ!!

Impeachment Anyone??

A de facto state of war has existed between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States for over 28 years. Congress was not called into session by President Carter to issue a formal declaration; nevertheless the invasion and subsequent occupation of the U.S. embassy (sovereign U.S. territory) in Tehran was an act of war. Iran continues to wage war on the U.S. by materially assisting the Taliban along its border with Afghanistan as well as the Al Quaida insurgents in Iraq. Although President Bush has occasionally talked tough to the Islamic theocracy, political considerations have thus far precluded any overt military actions.
Today's news of riots in Iran over the implementation of gasoline rationing emphasizes the paradox of a theocracy rejecting western culture with its technological advantages in favor of enforcing Islamic sharia law. While sitting atop major petroleum reserves, the Islamic Republic of Iran is unable to produce adequate supplies of motor fuel for its domestic needs. Some Members of the Majlis (Iranian Parliament) are blaming the U.S. for the riots

Some MPs denied that the rioting on Tuesday and Wednesday had anything to do with the government's rationing measures. "The attacks on the petrol pumps were organized well in advance by 'agents provocateurs' working for the US government, who incited some deranged individuals to set petrol stations alight," Morteza Tamaddon told journalists.

He also claimed that thousands of counterfeit dollars had been paid to these 'deranged individuals'.

While the government in Tehran insists on contributing to the destabilization of Lebanon and the Arab territories of the west bank, Gaza and the northern Israeli border and proceeding to acquire nuclear weapons in order to increase its mischief making capabilities, it remains extremely vulnerable to a potential enemy who would attack its refining capacity.

I submit that as the mullahs have expressed their intention to "remove Israel from the map" and attack the U.S. (great satan) at any opportunity, either nation is justified in taking strategic military action especially in view of the de facto state of war that continues. The political repercussions could not be on a magnitude greater than presently exist due to the global left's hatred of President Bush and consequently the U.S. If one is going to be hung any way what does it matter whether as a sheep or a goat?

Such a scenario is however, unlikely as Mr. Bush today announced his intention to appoint an envoy to one of the world’s most implacable hate-filled groups, the Organization of the Islamic Conference while standing unshod in a mosque in the capital. The following is an excerpt from Bush's speech:

I will appoint a special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. This is the first time a President has made such an appointment to the OIC. (Applause.) Our special envoy will listen to and learn from representatives from Muslim states and will share with them America’s views and values. This is an opportunity for Americans to demonstrate to Muslim communities our interest in respectful dialogue and continued friendship.

Read more at Gates of Vienna if you have the stomach. It is as yet unknown if Bush brought his own prayer rug for the ceremonies or if this "envoy" will require Senate confirmation. That debate could prove interesting. All of this while at the same time attempting to ram through an amnesty for 12+ million illegal alien immigrants.

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

Follow the Money II

The advice given by "deep throat" to Carl Bernstein in the Watergate affair in 1972 has stood the test of time: "Follow the money". Nowhere is it more appropriate than in the current "global warming" debate which is "settled science". In a recent interview with Dr. Nils-Axel Mörner who is the head of the Paleogeophysics and Geodynamics department at Stockholm University in Sweden and past president (1999-2003) of the INQUA Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution, leader of the Maldives Sea Level Project. Dr. Mörner has been studying the sea level and its effects on coastal areas for some 35 years. He was interviewed by Gregory Murphy on June 6, 2007 for EIR (Argentine Foundation for a Scientific Ecology). Dr. Mörner questions much of the so called "data" presented by the "warmistas" that use computer models in lieu of observations when presenting the case for political action to be taken to address the issue.
When asked about the real state of sea level rise during recent history he responded:

We can see that the sea level was indeed rising, from, let us say, 1850 to 1930-40. And that rise had a rate in the order of 1 millimeter per year. Not more (1.1 is the exact figure) since 1940, and there had been no rise until 1970; when we can come into the debate here on what is going on, and we have to go to satellite altimetry.

Dr. Mörner advises that any increase in sea level rise must effect the Earth's rotational velocity which has not occurred. Furthermore the data published by the United Nations introduces a factor which was not obtained by observations: It was a "correction factor" taken from a tide guage in Hong Kong (an area subsiding since it is erected on sedimentary fill):

So it was not a measured thing, but a figure introduced from outside. I accused them of this at the Academy of Sciences in Moscow —I said you have introduced factors from outside; it's not a measurement. It looks like it is measured from the satellite, but you don't say what really happened. And they answered, that we had to do it, because otherwise we would not have gotten any trend! This is a falsification of the data set. Why? Because they know the answer. We are field geologists; they are computer scientists. So all this talk that sea level is rising, this stems from the computer modeling, not from observations. The observations don't find it!

With regard to the IPCC report on global warming:

It had 22 authors, but none of them— none—were sea-level specialists. They were given this mission, because they promised to give the "right" answer.

Dr. Mörner further stated:

I'll tell you another thing: When I came to the Maldives, to our enormous surprise, one morning we were on an island, and I said, “This is something strange, the storm level has gone down; it has not gone up, it has gone down.” And then I started to check the level all around, and I asked the others in the group, “Do you see anything here on the beach?”

And after awhile they found it too. And we had investigated, and we were sure, I said we cannot leave the Maldives and go home and say the sea level is not rising, it's not respectful to the people government. I have to say it to Maldive television. So we made a very nice program for Maldive television, but it was forbidden by the government! Because they thought that they would lose money. They accuse the West of putting out carbon dioxide, and therefore we have to pay for our damage and the flooding. So they wanted the flooding scenario to go on.

When the warmistas decry "big oil" for the funding of global warming "deniers" they are conveniently omitting the elephant in the parlor which is "big government " which stands to benefit most from the scam by an exponential increase of its power over us as well as continued perks for politicians.

Treasure Down a Rat Hole

The Mexicans (God bless 'em) have an aphorism that ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ finds exquisitely appropriate concerning the latest news that the U.S. and European countries have resumed their economic and military aid to the recently "reformed" government of the "palestinian people" led by Mahmoud Abbas: "Cuando se acosta con putas o perras no es una sorpresa si se levanta pulgada." (When one gets in bed with whores or bitches it is no surprise if he gets up afflicted with fleas). Although this pearl of wisdom was imparted by the first mate of a shrimp boat in the Sea of Cortez concerning his captain, it applies perfectly in this instance. Abbas' writ now extends only to the territory along the west bank of the Jordan River of Judea and Samaria, it having been purged from Gaza by the terrorist "peace loving" followers of Hamas.
All of the treasure and weapons provided previously by the western governments including the U.S. to the palestinian "government" in Gaza are now in the hands of a terrorist organization committed to extinguishing the states of Israel and the United States.

Washington needs to think long and hard about Palestinian security training programs and America's image abroad -- particularly if people come to associate Washington's image with Mahmoud Abbas and his men who were stripped to their underwear and dragged out of that building in Gaza last week. The policy of extending additional aid to the Fatah government in the form of weaponry and treasure makes as much sense as Britain doing the same for France after the Dunkirk evacuation in June 1940. Sir Winston refused. It is unfortunate that Mr. Bush lacks Churchillean wisdom.

Collectivist Wet Dream

The proselytizing activities engaged in by adherents to the "warmista " religion have adopted the propaganda tactics of the recently discredited religion; Communism. One of their major tactics is the " band wagon" ploy:

Let me now try to identify some basic common features of the propagandistic algorithms [pun? Ed] of both the [environmentalist and communist] ideologies; it won't be too hard:
* They convey the message that the opposition doesn't exist.
* If the opposition does exist, it is composed of unsuccessful [losers] who have been defeated decades ago
* The members of the opposition are painted as being controlled by others, usually by demonized sources of power, with hints of corruption; a connection - even indirect connection - with these ultimate "sources of evil" is presented as a complete proof of wrongness.
* The opposition gets tags that are meant to be derogatory - capitalist, Zionist, deniers, renegades, contrarians, reactionary, burgeoisie, oil-funded etc.
* The opposition is presented as being against all the people - and all the people should agree and do agree with that; statements that everyone agrees and everyone keeps on supporting the official position are repeated all the time
* The opposition members are criticized for their very existence and for the tiniest deviations from the official ideology, to assure everyone else that one simply can't join them if he wants to survive.
* The opposition is claimed to misinterpret words and facts even though it is pretty obvious that it is the official party who is doing that.
* The opposing individuals are deconstructed one by one by carefully crafted ad hominem attacks.
* The propaganda openly states that a debate or a dialogue itself is unacceptable and no details of the opponents' opinions are ever analyzed
* Whenever it's possible, the opponents must be fired, denied government grants or otherwise harassed; a penetrating analysis of skeptics' personal lives and attempts to find anything questionable - even if it is completely unrelated to the dispute - is a standard tool of the propaganda.

A good explanation for why this has happened is that those collectivists left adrift by the implosion of the former Soviet bloc have been forced to transfer their efforts to an as yet undiscredited movement. The feminist movement is likewise undergoing an inexorable process of discreditation as a result of its having achieved all of its legitimate objectives and thus in order to continue to exist must rely on espousing more and more extremist and marginal issues.

Additionally, the former communists and their other collectivist kin have largely settled into various facets of the environmentalist movement due to their urge to oppose the free enterprise system. At the bottom of all the collectivist philosophies is a need to exercise control over their fellow man. What better method to advance this control than to dominate and limit the use of energy which is the force driving modern western society and consequently its culture.

Science is science. Consensus is politics. And close examination of many of those part of that "consensus" reveals they are not climatologists,but grant seekers.

Dr. Reid Bryson, University of Wisconsin Professor emeritus is the founding chairman of the department of meteorology at UW-Madison and of the Institute for Environmental Studies, now known as the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. He retired in 1985, but has gone into the office almost every day since. He does it without pay.

"I have now worked for zero dollars since I retired, long enough that I have paid back the people of Wisconsin every cent they paid me to give me a wonderful, wonderful career. So we are even now. And I feel good about that," said Bryson.

So, if global warming isn't such a burning issue, why are thousands of scientists so concerned about it?

"Why are so many thousands not concerned about it?" Bryson shot back.

"There is a lot of money to be made in this," he added. "If you want to be an eminent scientist you have to have a lot of grad students and a lot of grants. You can't get grants unless you say, 'Oh global warming, yes, yes, carbon dioxide.'"

Speaking out against global warming is like being a heretic, Bryson noted.

So much for "Big Oil" financing the skeptics!

In truth, there is no validity to the assertion by the "warmistas" that "the science is settled".
"Government, at all levels, has a vested interest in scaring you into giving up your rights and freedom in favor of tyranny and controlling society. That, quite simply, is what 'global warming' is all about."

HT/ Stephen Milloy
American Thinker

Omnipotent Government?

We now learn that the genocide committed by Muslims against the Christian tribes in the Darfur region of Sudan is really caused by (are you ready for this?) "man made global climate change". Now aren't you ashamed of your last fuelup at the local Citgo gas station? Some time ago a wag averred that the environazis would soon be blaming any unpleasantness in the world on man made global warming. Our chuckles indulged in at that time seem now to ring eerily hollow. The United Nation's CEO has signed on board the new religion which insists that the omnipotent government (preferably one with global reach) be assigned to solve this vexing problem by devising new taxing and freedom limiting schemes but without the application of military power. How novel!

But here in the U.S. one is shocked to learn that the government may not be omnipotent:

The illegal immigration question is an interesting test of government in action, at least when it comes to core responsibilities like defense of the nation. When critics of this "comprehensive" immigration bill demand enforcement of the borders, the administration says: Boy, you're right there! We're with you on that! We want enforcement, too. But we can't get it as long as you're holding up this "comprehensive reform."

Why not? There are immigration laws on the books right now, aren't there? Why not try enforcing them? The same people who say that government is a mighty power for good that can extinguish every cigarette butt and detoxify every cheeseburger and even change the very climate of the planet back to some Edenic state so that the water that falleth from heaven will land as ice and snow, and polar bears on distant continents will frolic as they did in days of yore, the very same people say: Building a border fence? Enforcing deportation orders? Can't be done, old boy. Pie-in-the-sky.

How are we to resolve this seeming paradox when we are also assured by our "leaders" that although we are at war with "terrorism", retaliatory attacks on those who routinely act on their wish to kill us result only in "innocent civilian" casualties? It would appear that our "leaders" are really only interested in two things; more power over us and continued enjoyment of the concomitant perquisites associated with the exercise of that power . Only an idiot or a politician would argue for granting the government more power over us, but then again, these are truly strange times.

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

The Real Cuba IV

I'm not sure when the public release of Michael Moore's latest "documentary" Sicko for public viewing is scheduled, but in it he alleges that: "Despite its poverty, ... Cuba's healthcare system is a model for the Third World."

It is unclear how much time Mr. Moore spent inspecting the health care systems (yes, that's plural) in Cuba but it is likely that his government minders insured that he viewed only the facilities accessed by hard currency paying foreigners and Communist Party aparatchiks and not the system which ordinary Cubans are forced to endure.

Mr. Moore, like most of the Hollywood leftists such as Ed Asner, Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover, Steven Spielberg, Jack Nicholson and others visit the island prison and are guided around the upscale resorts and commercial ventures constructed by foreign (mostly Spanish) investors from which the Cuban population is excluded (apartheid?). They return to sing the praises of Castro's "egalitarian paradise".

These leftists, whom Lenin termed "useful idiots", for the most part neither speak Spanish nor have ever conversed unsupervised with a Cuban who is forced to subsist on the food allowed by the government "libreta" (ration book).

The rationing of virtually all food products in Cuba has been in effect since 12 March 1962. The official Castro government position on the reason for imposing a food rationing system in peace time and for the past 45 years is to blame the economic trade sanctions imposed by the U.S. which it insists on characterizing as a "blockade". Although Cuba is not blockaded and is able to trade freely with over 195 nations, the food crisis is the fault of the U.S. government. Since 2001 U.S. limited agricultural trade with Cuba has been allowed but with no sign that the rationing system there will end any time soon.

Cuban purchases from U.S. firms amounted to
$4.319 million in 2001, $138.635 million in 2002,
and $256.9 million in 2003. Cuba became the 35th
most important food and agricultural export market
for the United States in 2003, up from last (226th) in
2000. Actual purchases and pending contracts in the
first-half of 2004 are at a pace to move Cuba into the
top 20 most important markets of U.S. food and
agricultural exports.

In early 1990 we cruised the north coast of Cuba aboard our 34' sailboat from near Mariel to Puerto Samá and had the opportunity to observe first hand the conditions under which Cubans live (see here, here and here). Prior to 1990 the soviet bloc was subsidizing Cuba to the tune of U.S. $600.00 per year for every man woman and child living on the island. The Cuban standard of "living" has deteriorated substantially since then.

We were docked for several days at the Marina Hemmingway near Havana and viewed a propaganda program on Cuban TV praising the recent huge crop of tomatoes. There were shots of tomato fields nearly as far as the eye could see. We had been unable to obtain any tomatoes even at the diplomatic store and there were no tomatoes available anywhere. I questioned one of the marina workers as to the reason for this situation and he advised that the tomatoes were rotting on the vines because the Russians had failed to ship the wood for the shipping crates. Oh, the joys of a socialist economy. We have visited and spent time in the majority of the Caribbean island nations, They all have soil and climate ideal for the production of agricultural products and meat. Cuba is the only one that needs to impose food rationing on its people. It will probably not be long however before it will be joined by Venezuela

The list of inconveniences for Cubans goes on and on: take your own glue (if you can MAKE it) to the post office as the stamps lack adhesive; and toilet paper, tooth paste and matches are only available to Communist Party members and foreigners.

Our home grown environmentalists (socialists) have severely restricted the petroleum industry here in the U.S. due to concerns over "pollution". There is no problem though in the socialist paradise of Cuba. Most of the few oil wells that are producing are not properly maintained and are leaking crude oil into nearby creeks which flow into the sea. Most of the motor vehicles on the streets (mercifully few however) lack any form of pollution limiting devices and belch copious clouds of noxious fumes. How many of you gentle readers were aware that Cuba has oil fields? One must assume that their local enviros are currently serving their sentences in one of the prisons of the Archipielago de los Canarreos.

You can compare this hell on earth to the pre revolution situation here and here.
The above graphic shows "Che" Guevara doing what he does best

cross posted at: Eternity Road

Coming to a Society Near You!

For those of you gentle readers who have long believed that scandinavian countries (specifically Sweden) are models of liberty and freedom to be emulated by other societies, think again. Freedom of speech does NOT exist in Sweden.
On Wednesday 13 June 2007 Dahn Petterson was convicted and fined the equivalent of $3000.00 for "Agitation against an ethnic minority" . Mr Petterson who is a member of the "kommunstyrelsen" (County Commission) of Burlöv, Skåne in Sweden was attempting to solicit governmental aid for the homeless population of the town. In justifying the request for aid he pointed out that most of the homeless people were ethnic Albanian immigrants from the Kosovo region who were suffering from a high incidence of drug addiction and that the bulk of heroin and other drugs were entering Sweden from Afghanistan via Albania and Kosovo. These are facts frequently reported in Swedish newspapers. Nevertheless as in other authoritarian countries, stating verifiable but politically incorrect facts can land one afoul of the authorities.

Sweden not only has enacted "hate crime" legislation but has included "hate speech" in it as well. Although Mr. Petterson had no intention of disparaging anyone, he has been convicted of what amounts to "hate speech".

If you think such legislation is an affront to our traditional ideas of liberty in the U.S. I must inform you that not only has hate crime legislation been enacted in one form or another in 49 states, (the sole exception being Wyoming) a federal bill, H.R. 1592 introduced by John Conyers (D MI) passed in the House of Representatives on 3 May 2007. The proposed law federalizes "hate crimes" and broadens their scope to include more protected classes. You would be well advised to avoid "insulting" any member of (fill in the blank) a protected group. Go ahead! Define "insult".

cross posted at: Eternity Road

15 June 2007 22:30 Hrs. UPDATE:

“When a member of the council asked the police whether Dahn Pettersson’s claims were true, he was told simply that the claims constituted Agitation Against a National or Ethnic Group. The law is becoming a hindrance for providing information about actual situations. Questions which have their basis in disparagement of a particular group cannot be answered [by the stating of facts].

Cultural Marxist Warfare

From all indications it would appear that the American public has soured on the so called "war on terror" especially as it is conducted in Iraq. Who can blame them? With the opposition of the cultural Marxists as well as the anti war libertarian movement which cannot see any threat posed by the Islamists jihadis the attempt has been made to conduct the hostilities on the basis of political correctness while the jihadists are constrained by no such impediments. One illustration of this point is the effort to counter the IEDs (improvised explosive devices) in Iraq which are the major source of military casualties.

The insurgents who kill our young soldiers are ruthless, but we have sometimes been cautious in our response. Take the question of targeting bomb makers: There may be an unlimited supply of explosives in Iraq, but there is not an unlimited supply of people who know how to wire the detonators. In 2004, CIA operatives in Iraq believed that they had identified the signatures of 11 bomb makers. They proposed a diabolical -- but potentially effective -- sabotage program that would have flooded Iraq with booby-trapped detonators designed to explode in the bomb makers' hands. But the CIA general counsel's office said no. The lawyers claimed that the agency lacked authority for such an operation, one source recalled.

There are technologies that would allow us to detonate every roadside bomb in Iraq by heating the wires in the detonators to the point that they triggered an explosion. But these systems could severely harm civilians nearby, so we're not using them, either. "In our system, we often are not given credit for the fact that we are very concerned about collateral damage," Meigs said.

This situation leads one to conclude that the military strategies and tactics of the US are being heavily influenced by a class of legal beagles whose impact on other facets of our society have resulted in substantially increased economic costs.

Your humble writer in a previous life earned his bread in the oil fields of that formerly great state of California where he met many fine and philosophical individuals. One such person was a native American from Oklahoma who imparted several pearls of wisdom to ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ and one of the pearls went something like this: "If you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly!"

The enormous economic wealth of the US tends to obscure many economic costs but when those costs begin to effect the human life of our citizenry it may be time to fire some Pentagon and Langley lawyers and place some grizzly bears on the payroll.

Make no mistake. Our enemies will continue to use our moral weaknesses as weapons to defeat the West and unfortunately it is THEY who will dictate the rules of engagement.

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

hat tip: John Ray

Thank You St. Rachel of Carson

It never ceases to amaze one how the collectivists are able to proclaim a series of "crises" in order to generate implementation of policies and programs whose chief result is to increase government's (their) control over humanity. Occasionally these crusades reach the status of a secular religion. The most recent example of this strange phenomenon is environmentalism and it is not uncommon that some of the panics generated by its practitioners result in truly tragic loss of human life.

This is the centennial year of the birth of Rachel Carson who popularized modern junk science with her publication of Silent Spring in 1962 which was instrumental in the world wide banning of of DDT. The use of this substance had resulted in the near eradication of malaria world wide with the concomitant increase of life expectancy, especially in the third world areas of Africa, Asia and South America. With the banning of DDT these poor areas were unable to substitute its use with more expensive chemical compounds as were the developed nations. As a result, the exponential rate of increase in cases of malaria in the third world have caused the unnecessary premature deaths of many millions of humans, usually children under 8 years of age.

Although as a result of recent less glandular cost benefit studies, the ban of DDT is gradually being lifted, the environmentalists continue to resist it:

If students are going to read “Silent Spring” in science classes, I wish it were paired with another work from that same year, 1962, titled “Chemicals and Pests.” It was a review of “Silent Spring” in the journal Science written by I. L. Baldwin, a professor of agricultural bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin.

He didn’t have Ms. Carson’s literary flair, but his science has held up much better...Ms. Carson’s many defenders, ecologists as well as other scientists, often excuse her errors by pointing to the primitive state of environmental and cancer research in her day. They argue that she got the big picture right: without her passion and pioneering work, people wouldn’t have recognized the perils of pesticides. But those arguments are hard to square with Dr. Baldwin’s review.

Another example of a leftist exacerbated "crisis" is the eradication of rats, mosquitos, flies and sparrows decreed by one of the left's great "heroes" Mao-Tse-Tung in the 1950s:

The anti-sparrow campaign, for instance, was extremely effective but had tragic results.

Villagers were told to rush out to the fields, banging on pots and pans and screaming at the tops of their voices.

The sparrows took to the air, and as the pandemonium continued, stayed there, too terrified to land, until they dropped dead from exhaustion.

The only trouble was that sparrows are a vital link in the food chain and are particularly fond of [eating] locusts. With no sparrows left to eat them, there was a plague of locusts, the crops were ruined and millions of people died in the ensuing famine.

The most recent and continuing manifestation of a junk science "crisis" assuming the proportions of a quasi religion is the urging of a lemming like response to climate change by the prophet Al Gore of the "Church of the Warmistas".

The collectivists are almost never held accountable for the damage they cause. In the words of Dr. Thomas Sowell: "The proposals of the self anointed moral elite are to be judged by the righteousness of the intentions behind them, rather than the consequences of their implementation."
cross posted at: Eternity Road

Enviro Alert!!!

Finally the environmentalists have discovered an issue that we can hang our hat on. The threat presented by the failure to regulate the dangerous chemical DHMO is finally being addressed in some areas of the U.S. It is surprising that the state of Georgia, a traditional "red [neck] state" is leading the way in this crusade. The dangers of DHMO are myriad and frightening. To name a few:

* Death due to accidental inhalation of DHMO, even in small quantities.
* Prolonged exposure to solid DHMO causes severe tissue damage.
* Excessive ingestion produces a number of unpleasant though not typically life-threatening side-effects.
* DHMO is a major component of acid rain.
* Gaseous DHMO can cause severe burns.
* Contributes to soil erosion.
* Leads to corrosion and oxidation of many metals.
* Contamination of electrical systems often causes short-circuits.
* Exposure decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes.
* Found in biopsies of pre-cancerous tumors and lesions.
* Given to vicious dogs involved in recent deadly attacks.
* Often associated with killer cyclones in the U.S. Midwest and elsewhere, and in hurricanes including deadly storms in Florida, New Orleans and other areas of the southeastern U.S.
* Thermal variations in DHMO are a suspected contributor to the El Nino weather effect.

What are the symptoms of accidental Dihydrogen Monoxide overdose?
You may not always recognize that you have been a victim of accidental DHMO overdose, so here are some signs and symptoms to look for. If you suspect Dihydrogen Monoxide overdose, or if you exhibit any of these symptoms, you should consult with your physician or medical practitioner. The data presented here is provided for informational purposes only, and should in no way be construed as medical advice of any sort.

Watch for these symptoms:

* Excessive sweating
* Excessive urination
* Bloated feeling
* Nausea
* Vomiting
* Electrolyte imbalance
* Hyponatremia (serum hypotonicity)
* Dangerously imbalanced levels of ECF and ICF in the blood
* Degeneration of sodium homeostasis

It is believed that the awareness of the dangers of DHMO have been surpressed by large corporate interests vested in its continued non regulation. One of these interests, Big Oil, doubtless wishes to have the issue ignored as the gaseous form of DHMO which is a byproduct of their ongoing operations is an even greater greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
To learn more about the issues concerning DHMO and how you too can contribute to the resolution of this dangerous issue visit this website. Meanwhile advise your congressional representatives as well as your state legislators of your concern on this important issue

Get Out of Jail Free

The U.S. Senate continues to debate the "Comprehensive amnesty Immigration" bill and from all appearances it will pass even in the teeth of opposition by a majority of the citizens who are aware of its provisions. Should it pass both houses of Congress and arrive on President Bush's desk, he will doubtless sign it. In signing this travesty into law he will be in effect PARDONING upwards of 12 million criminals. This will put to shame any claim that Bill Clinton handed out pardons like candy to criminals such as Mark Rich et al. One thing can be said of Clinton; at least he received a quid pro quo for his pardons in the form of cash or other gratification (if you know what I mean).

I can understand the logic behind the Democrats' support of the amnesty bill; after all, every one of these illegal immigrants is a potential Democrat voter. What is unclear as yet is the reasoning behind Bush's support for it while at the same time neglecting to pardon Lewis Libby who has in effect been sentenced for a crime he was not convicted of. Is Bush intimidated by the resulting caterwauling on the part of his enemies, thus losing additional political capital? In the words of John Stossel: "gimme a break". The entire Plame/Wilson affair was a political witch hunt. What does Bush have left to lose except what remains of his support by conservatives?

Curiouser and Curiouser

Let us see if we understand this situation correctly. A former Clinton Administration member steals and destroys an unknown number of top secret documents concerning national security issues from the National Archives and receives a minimal fine and forfeiture of his license to practice law and an aid to the vice president who has not been convicted of violating ANY statute is fined $250,000.00 and sentenced to 30 months in a Federal prison. Convince me that this situation can be characterized as "justice". If President Bush fails to intervene in this egregious miscarriage of justice by pardoning Mr. Libby he deserves the condemnation of anyone who is concerned with justice as it is administered in the US.

Global Warmista Update

The following is a letter to the editors of American Thinker which indicates that there are still citizens capable of rational thought.

In what is an example of 'technology may evolve, but human nature stays the same', it finally hit me: the Global Warming alarmists have the same anti-scientific mentality of the natives looking to make sacrifices to the gods so the volcano doesn't erupt.

In those not-so-ancient cultures, questioning the validity of the shaman's beliefs and prescriptions was heresy; today, the chief shaman is Al Gore, and to question the nature of warming is to invite ridicule and, increasingly, banishment from the village.

Here's some news: The volcano is going to erupt or not erupt, no matter how many live chickens, virgins, or billions of dollars in public wealth you (we) choose to sacrifice.

So the question is this: Will you take off your feathered hat long enough for the scientific community to have a legitimate scientific debate about this? Or are you too afraid of the public realizing that the shaman has no clothes?

Another way to look at it: Allow the [warmistas] to stifle economic productivity, and you've returned to a culture of human sacrifice. Not exactly progress, in my book, but we can let Al explain that one to the millions who will pay the price.

David Youker

For those who swallow the baloney that there is a scientific "consensus" on the human causes of global warming, your attention is directed here.

Revenue Enhancement

Most of us take for granted without giving it a second thought that traffic laws are in place in order to ensure safety. Nothing could be further from the truth. How many of you, while driving down the expressway or for that matter any roadway, have noticed that you were safely keeping up with the flow of traffic but exceeding the posted speed limit by several or a dozen+ miles per hour? The reason for this is simple. Unless human beings are irrational or under the influence of a substance they instinctively act in such a way as to assure their own and others' safety. This fact is one of the basic rules of sentient creatures' survival strategies. No one but a fool or a substance abuser (redundancy alert) will operate a motor vehicle or other dangerous machinery in such a way as to risk harm to themselves or others. Why then, are speed limits enacted and enforced? The answer is both shocking and simple. REVENUE!. The fines from traffic citations contribute to the maintenance of government bureaucracies along with their associated drones who otherwise contribute little or nothing beneficial to society.

Most of those who are charged with traffic enforcement understand this but are loath to admit it. In fact this truism can be verified by observing that traffic flowing safely along a roadway at speeds substantially in excess of the posted limit is seldom molested by traffic officers even though they are frequently present. In most situations the errant motorist detained by the police is the idiot engaged in unsafe behavior such as cutting in and out of traffic, tailgating and otherwise calling attention to focus on him/her. In a word: RECKLESS DRIVING. Traffic officers for the most part are reasonably skillful at apprehending and dissuading such unsafe drivers.

Why then does your humble writer, having written several hundred traffic citations himself, aver that speed limits for the most part are in place to generate cash flow? In addition to having been exhorted to increase the generation of revenue by bureaucrats and low level politicos, and in order to further demonstrate this situation I will relate a true anecdote. While traveling across the country recently ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ had occasion to drive through several sparsely populated jurisdictions. In many of these areas the interstate stretches to the horizon and traffic is light to non existent. The posted speed limit on this occasion was 75 miles per hour and yours truly was comfortably and safely cruising along at 79-80 mph. A vehicle traveling in the same direction was gradually being overtaken and revealed itself to be a state police vehicle operated by one of the state of Arizona's finest. I had obviously been observed by him in the process of overtaking and he was traveling at exactly the speed limit (75 mph). What to do? Sheepishly slow down and play the hypocrite or continue to slowly pass him while exceeding the limit by 4 MPH?

Having spent a few years in traffic enforcement during a previous life and judging that a grace of 9 to 14 mph was the rule I passed him. No sooner did I return to the #2 lane than his blue lights began flashing and I immediately pulled over. I noted that he approached our vehicle with citation book in hand and he politely requested the obligatory documentation. As luck would have it the necessary drivers license was tucked discreetly behind my retirement badge and identification which he was able to observe, whereupon he secured his citation book and proceeded to advise me of the infraction I had perpetrated against the good citizens of Cochise county, Arizona. He wrote me a "warning" and bade me a safe trip home to Georgia. I asked him if it was standard policy to detain motorists who exceeded the speed limit by 4 mph and he stated that there is no "grace" allowed in Arizona. Amen to that! For the information of those readers who are in legal possession of valid law enforcement credentials be advised that had the above incident occurred in the state of Colorado, ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ would be at least $120.00 poorer.

the accompanying graphic was shamelssly stolen from: Sigmund, Carl and Alfred

Another Junket with an Agenda

It is always a hoot when these political junkets are covered by the media ; especially when the politicians look through the wrong end of the telescope or comment thoughtfully while viewing the scene through binoculars with the lens covers on. Is this a presidential thing?

Pelosi, Bipartisan Congressional Delegation See Firsthand the Adverse Impact of Global Warming

"During our trip to Greenland last weekend, we witnessed the effect of
global warming on the ice sheets and the economic impact on the Inuit
people. Greenland Premier Hans Enoksen, national and local leaders, and
residents all stressed that changes to their environment are rapid and far
reaching. Fishing and hunting and the tourism attracted by dog sledding
have all been adversely affected by the warming climate.
"Renowned climate scientists Dr. Konrad Steffen, Dr. Jay Zwally, and
Dr. Jose Rial are studying the accelerating melting and movement of the
Artic ice. Scientists are working rapidly to analyze the dramatic changes
to the Greenland ice cap -- the amount of ice breaking off in two days is
enough fresh water for New York City for one full year.
"The science is undeniable -- as is the urgency with
which we must act."

The "science" is so "undeniable" that a 15 year old student in Maine carefully and methodically rips it to shreds here.
Am I the only one who notices that warmista scientists are always characterized as "renowned" whereas equally credentialed doubting scientists are idiot fringe "deniers"? The warmista articles are inevitably laced with loaded words such as: urgent, undeniable, dramatic, accelerating and irreversible.

In the interest of intellectual and fiscal reason these junkets should be more closely scrutinized. Conferences held at health spas and golf resorts are one thing, but the next thing we know the politicos will return from a tour of flood ravaged Bangladesh and insist we begin funding work on an Ark.

Beware the politician demanding urgent governmental action. Your liberty and treasure are at extreme risk.

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

It Was Not In San Francisco

11 year-old girl shoots two home intruders

5-2-07 -- Two illegal aliens, Ralphel Resindez, 23, and Enrico
Garza, 26, probably believed they would easily overpower a home alone
eleven year old Patricia Harrington after her father had left their two
story home. It seems the two crooks never learned two things: they
were in MONTANA [not San Francisco], and Patricia had been a clay shooting champion since
she was nine. Patricia was in her upstairs bedroom when the two men
broke through the front door of the house.

She quickly ran to her father's room and grabbed his 12 gauge
Mossberg 500 shotgun. [the absolute best choice for home defense]

Resindez was the first to get up to the second floor only to be
the first to catch a near point blank blast of buck shot from the
girl's knee crouch aim.

He suffered fatal wounds to his abdomen and genitals. When Garza ran
to the foot of the stairs, he took a blast to the left shoulder and
staggered out into the street where he bled to death before medical
help could arrive.
It was found out later that Resindez was armed with a stolen .45
caliber handgun he took from another home invasion robbery. The
victim, 50 year old David Burien, was not so lucky as he died from
stab wounds to the chest.

Patricia staved off a robbery and potential rape because her
parents taught her how to use a gun. Her parents just didn't hide a
gun in the house and not educate her on the power that a firearm
provides.

Ignorance can be deadly, but fortunately for this Montana family,
knowledge was power.

TWO ILLEGALS THAT WILL BE SENT BACK...............IN A BOX

h/t Dick McDonald
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

Update 08:04 o6o407: Snopes has been unable to confirm this story. Thanks to elija.