Totalitarianism in the United States of America in 2009?
Paul Marks at Samizdata has a strongly cautionary note on how things have been developing here for some time. This is well worth the read.
…and his point is:
“But why should non-Americans care what happens in the United States?”
Because the brutal truth is that neither Britain or any other part of the West can stand if America falls – there is not, and can not be, any Plan B.
He has, as the saying goes, reason.
Toddlers who dislike spicy food ‘racist’
The National Children’s Bureau, which receives £12 million a year, mainly from Government funded organisations, has issued guidance to play leaders and nursery teachers advising them to be alert for racist incidents among youngsters in their care. This could include a child of as young as three who says “yuk” in response to being served unfamiliar foreign food.
HUH? Do any of the Brit moonbats that cooked this one up have any kids? Kids ALWAYS express dislike for some foods…and guess what, cultural origins have nothing to do with it. They need to take some deep breaths, relax, and get a life started over there.
The 366-page guide for staff in charge of pre-school children, called Young Children and Racial Justice, warns: “Racist incidents among children in early years settings tend to be around name-calling, casual thoughtless comments and peer group relationships.” It advises nursery teachers to be on the alert for childish abuse such as: “blackie”, “Pakis”, “those people” or “they smell”. The guide goes on to warn that children might also “react negatively to a culinary tradition other than their own by saying ‘yuk'”.
Staff are told: “No racist incident should be ignored. When there is a clear racist incident, it is necessary to be specific in condemning the action.” Warning that failing to pick children up on their racist attitudes could instil prejudice, the NCB adds that if children “reveal negative attitudes, the lack of censure may indicate to the child that there is nothing unacceptable about such attitudes”.
This is such a degree of surveillance it can only be described as totalitarian.
Nurseries are encouraged to report as many incidents as possible to their local council. The guide added: “Some people think that if a large number of racist incidents are reported, this will reflect badly on the institution. In fact, the opposite is the case.”
This reads almost exactly like stuff about the old Cheka/NKVD/KGB as described in Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago. Based on that, can quotas for mimimum numbers of reports be far behind?
Church attacks Labour for betraying Christians
The policies of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have helped to generate a spiritual, civic and economic crisis in Britain, according to an important Church of England report.
WHAT? Ingsoc is spiritually deficient?
Labour is failing society and lacks the vision to restore a sense of British identity, the report says in the Church’s strongest attack on the Government for decades. It accuses the Government of “deep religious illiteracy†and of having “no convincing moral directionâ€.
No moral direction? Religious illiteracy? DUH! Somehow they must have stumbled into range of getting clotted by ye olde cluebat.
How are these things related? If you have a little bit of time, and are willing to think, read this:
In a world where a snob like Michael Moore and a smug manipulator like Al Gore can win Oscars for “documentaries” that play fast and loose with the truth, it’s ironic that Ben Stein’s Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which makes a serious effort to tell the truth about a problem that’s seriously damaging our civilization, not only won’t get nominated for an Oscar but will certainly be attacked as anti-scientific.
This is the opposite of the truth, or very nearly so. Ben Stein’s film project was to expose the way rigid insistence on Darwinist dogma is expelling not only brilliant individuals but also truth itself from the public conversation of science.
This is one of the best discussions of these issues that the Chief has encountered…well worth the read.
Children need ‘life skills’ not dates say teachers
DISCLOSURE: The Chief is currently teaching U.S. and World History, along with some other social studies, and science, all at the high school level.
Children should not be taught to remember key historical dates such as the Battle of Hastings but should instead learn “life skills”, teachers have claimed. A new curriculum should place greater emphasis on broad skills such as team working and interpreting evidence rather than learning dates by rote, said the Association of Teachers and Lecturers.
Dum-de-dum-dum!
She said: “Is the world going to collapse if they don’t know ‘To Be, or Not to Be?’ Our national curriculum should be far more focused on the development of life skills and ways of working than whether or not we teach the Battle of Hastings. The skills of historical understanding are far more important than whether or not we teach a particular battle.” She insisted it was “not dumbing down – we are raising up”.
Raising up WHAT? People who are unable to think analytically, but may be well integrated members of their “tribal group”.
A skills-based curriculum demands that you make connections between different subject domains,” she said. “That requires thought. Too much learning that goes on today is rote learning.
This begs the distinction that without having a sound command of the CONTENT of the “subject domains”, any “connections” are pretty much irrelevant. This is NOT to deny that such connections do exist, but, without the foundational knowledge base, all that is left to operate by is ones “feelings” about things…which perfectly meshes with the successful creation of another brick in the Ingsoc wall of the Labor (UK) or Donkocratic (US) brave new world. Besides that, it’s a LOT easier to meet your educational goals when focused on “life skills” and “ways of working”…which can only be evaluated using subjective judgement…and none of those pesky facts that can be objectively tested!
David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal’
This is a very interesting piece from a rather surprising source…The Village Voice?!
David Mamet, a gen-u-whine Hollywood type media Liberal has gotten mugged by reality, and explains the process in this op-ed. It’s well worth the read…my favorite bit is this:
I’d observed that lust, greed, envy, sloth, and their pals are giving the world a good run for its money, but that nonetheless, people in general seem to get from day to day; and that we in the United States get from day to day under rather wonderful and privileged circumstancesâ€â€that we are not and never have been the villains that some of the world and some of our citizens make us out to be, but that we are a confection of normal (greedy, lustful, duplicitous, corrupt, inspiredâ€â€in short, human) individuals living under a spectacularly effective compact called the Constitution, and lucky to get it.
For the Constitution, rather than suggesting that all behave in a godlike manner, recognizes that, to the contrary, people are swine and will take any opportunity to subvert any agreement in order to pursue what they consider to be their proper interests.
To that end, the Constitution separates the power of the state into those three branches which are for most of us (I include myself) the only thing we remember from 12 years of schooling.
The Constitution, written by men with some experience of actual government, assumes that the chief executive will work to be king, the Parliament will scheme to sell off the silverware, and the judiciary will consider itself Olympian and do everything it can to much improve (destroy) the work of the other two branches. So the Constitution pits them against each other, in the attempt not to achieve stasis, but rather to allow for the constant corrections necessary to prevent one branch from getting too much power for too long.
Rather brilliant. For, in the abstract, we may envision an Olympian perfection of perfect beings in Washington doing the business of their employers, the people, but any of us who has ever been at a zoning meeting with our property at stake is aware of the urge to cut through all the pernicious bullshit and go straight to firearms.
Check it out…it’s worth the read.
The Chief saw an evening replay of Gov. Mitt Romney’s statement today concerning faith and politics.
IMHO it was one of the best political addresses since the days of the Gipper himself.
Romney Vows to Serve ‘The Common Cause’
His campaign at a crossroads, Republican Mitt Romney said Thursday his Mormon faith should neither help nor hinder his quest for the White House and vowed to serve the interests of the nation, not the church, if elected president.
“When I place my hand on the Bible and take the oath of office, that oath becomes my highest promise to God,” Romney said in a speech that explicitly recalled remarks John F. Kennedy made in 1960 in an effort to quell anti-Catholic bias.
There are plenty of descriptions of the Governor’s remarks, in the above noted article, as well as many others. Pat Buchanan however, goes considerably farther with his impression, which is more in keeping with the Chief’s above noted evaluation:
If Mitt Romney wins the Republican nomination, it will be due in large measure to his splendid and moving defense of his faith and beliefs delivered today at the George Bush Presidential Library.
The address was courageous in a way John F. Kennedy’s speech to the Baptist ministers was not. Kennedy went to Houston to assure the ministers he agreed with them on virtually every issue where they differed with the Catholic agenda and that his faith would not affect any decision he made as president. He called himself “the Democratic Party’s candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic.” It was like saying: “I happen to be left-handed. I can’t help it.”
Romney did not truckle. He did not suggest that his faith was irrelevant to the formation of his political philosophy. While declaring, “I will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause and no one interest,” he did not back away an inch from his Mormon faith.
Going on, Buchanan isn’t afraid of expressing a strongly positive response:
Romney understands that while the First Amendment proscribes the establishment of religion, it guarantees the free expression of all religions, even in the public school. Supreme Court, take note. “I will not separate us from the God who gave us liberty,” said Romney.
This was a tour de force, and it was delivered before perhaps the largest audience Romney will have for any speech before the January caucuses and primaries. It will be the subject of editorials and columns in coming weeks. And it is hard to see how Romney does not benefit hugely from what was a quintessentially “American” address.
With this speech, Romney has thrown on the defensive his main rival in Iowa, Mike Huckabee, the Christians’ candidate who, when asked if Mormonism is a cult, left the impression it might well be.
The issues of religious tolerance, what it means to be a Christian in politics and of secularism versus traditionalism are all now out on the table, and will likely be the social-moral issues on which the race turns between now and January.
To this writer, Romney is on unassailable grounds. Nor is he hurt by the fact that his wife and five children testify eloquently that he is a man of principles who lives by them.
Amen.
Big names no draw for anti-war films
Q: How does this support the widely bruited about Donk assertion of a massive groundswell of opposition to the war?
A: It doesn’t!
It doesn’t matter how many Oscar winners are in front of or behind the camera  audiences are proving to be conscientious objectors when it comes to this fall’s surge of anti-war and anti-Bush films. Both “In the Valley of Elah” and, more recently, “Rendition” drew miniscule crowds upon their release, which doesn’t bode well for the ongoing stream of films critical of the Iraq War and the Bush administration’s wider war on terror.
The moonbats are going to take a bath in terms of their investment. Like they say in Russia: “Toughski shitski” Couldn’t happen to a more deserving crew.
Brandon Gray, President and Publisher of www.boxofficemojo.com, says we seek out movies for inspiration, for laughter and to be moved. “Many of these recent dramas fail on all those fronts,” Mr. Gray says. “They’re too heavy handed in their presentation.”
So given the perpetrators, what else would you expect?
Secessionists meeting in Tennessee
In an unlikely marriage of desire to secede from the United States, two advocacy groups from opposite political traditions  New England and the South  are sitting down to talk.
Tired of foreign wars and what they consider right-wing courts, the Middlebury Institute wants liberal states like Vermont to be able to secede peacefully. That sounds just fine to the League of the South, a conservative group that refuses to give up on Southern independence.
“We believe that an independent South, or Hawaii, Alaska, or Vermont would be better able to serve the interest of everybody, regardless of race or ethnicity,” said Michael Hill of Killen, Ala., president of the League of the South.
The interesting question in all this is that IF some state or states REALLY got enough support to push secession, would there be enough intestinal fortitude available to force it to not happen, as was the case in 1860? The Chief has to wonder. Also, imagine the field day the UN types would have standing up for “self-determination”, etc.
This sort of Balkanization in today’s world would greatly weaken the resiliance of Western Civilization in dealing with what would rapidly become an even more resurgent Islamofascist jihad, and thus be ultimately an evil.
Comic Kathy Griffin: ‘Suck it, Jesus!’
Kathy Griffin, the star of the Bravo show “My Life on the D-List,” used her appearance on the Emmy awards program to tell Jesus to “suck it” and to claim full credit for the honor for herself….”I guess hell froze over,” Griffin announced. “A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this. He had nothing to do with this.”
The Chief has to admit, she makes a great point. Jesus had NOTHING to do with these awards. The only thing left is to identify WHO did have something to do with this. Griffin claims credit, but WHOSE system is she operating under? (HINT: It doesn’t belong to Jesus, or God.)
Lest anyone misunderstand her intent, Griffen went on to speak more truth with “This award is my god now.”, thus openly initiating a cult of the Emmy statue.
And these Ho’wood types think that their verbal diarrhea really means something in the real world?
Christianity finds a fulcrum in Asia
One of teh Chief’s favorites: Spengler writing over at Asia Times, with another offering of great interest and at least potential importance.
Ten thousand Chinese become Christians each day, according to a stunning report by the National Catholic Reporter’s veteran correspondent John Allen, and 200 million Chinese may comprise the world’s largest concentration of Christians by mid-century, and the largest missionary force in history.
There’s a lot more in this piece…among the more interesting morsels is this one:
While the Catholic Church has worked patiently for independence from the Chinese government, which sponsors a “Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association” with government-appointed bishops, the evangelicals have no infrastructure to suppress and no hierarchy to protect. In contrast to Catholic caution, John Allen observes, “Most Pentecostals would obviously welcome being arrested less frequently, but in general they are not waiting for legal or political reform before carrying out aggressive evangelization programs.”
Allen adds: “The most audacious even dream of carrying the gospel beyond the borders of China, along the old Silk Road into the Muslim world, in a campaign known as “Back to Jerusalem”. As [Time correspondent David] Aikman explains in Jesus in Beijing, some Chinese evangelicals and Pentecostals believe that the basic movement of the gospel for the last 2,000 years has been westward: from Jerusalem to Antioch, from Antioch to Europe, from Europe to America, and from America to China. Now, they believe, it’s their turn to complete the loop by carrying the gospel to Muslim lands, eventually arriving in Jerusalem. Once that happens, they believe, the gospel will have been preached to the entire world.”
Aikman reports that two Protestant seminaries secretly are training missionaries for deployment in Muslim countries.
The plot thickens!
On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs
This is something that the Chief had first encountered a while back in one of Bill Whittle’s essays at Eject! Eject! Eject! The proposition seemed to make a whole lot of sense at the time, and it still does, as the nightly sound of coyotes howling around the countryside here at the Chief’s home location reminds.
Greywolf, posting at Mudville Gazette also commented on the premise of the article, and helpfully linked to the original source, an essay by a LTC (RET) Dave Grossman.
This is really good stuff, worth the read, and worth some serious thought. Just a little bit to hopefully whet the mental appetite:
One Vietnam veteran, an old retired colonel, once said this to me: “Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident.”…
“Then there are the wolves,” the old war veteran said, “and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy.” Do you believe there are wolves out there who will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe it. There are evil men in this world and they are capable of evil deeds. The moment you forget that or pretend it is not so, you become a sheep. There is no safety in denial.
“Then there are sheepdogs,” he went on, “and I’m a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf.”
If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen, a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath, a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? What do you have then? A sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero’s path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed
That kernel is the basic premise of the whole discussion, which leads to this conclusion:
And so the warrior must strive to confront denial in all aspects of his life, and prepare himself for the day when evil comes. If you are warrior who is legally authorized to carry a weapon and you step outside without that weapon, then you become a sheep, pretending that the bad man will not come today. No one can be “on” 24/7, for a lifetime. Everyone needs down time. But if you are authorized to carry a weapon, and you walk outside without it, just take a deep breath, and say this to yourself…
“Baa.”
This business of being a sheep or a sheep dog is not a yes-no dichotomy. It is not an all-or-nothing, either-or choice. It is a matter of degrees, a continuum. On one end is an abject, head-in-the-sand-sheep and on the other end is the ultimate warrior. Few people exist completely on one end or the other. Most of us live somewhere in between. Since 9-11 almost everyone in America took a step up that continuum, away from denial. The sheep took a few steps toward accepting and appreciating their warriors, and the warriors started taking their job more seriously. The degree to which you move up that continuum, away from sheephood and denial, is the degree to which you and your loved ones will survive, physically and psychologically at your moment of truth.
The Chief heartily concurs.
Sex Ed for Kindergarteners ‘Right Thing to Do,’ Says Obama
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told Planned Parenthood Tuesday that sex education for kindergarteners, as long as it is “age-appropriate,” is “the right thing to do.”
“‘Barack Obama supports teaching sex education to kindergarteners,'” said Obama mimicking Keyes’ distinctive style of speech. “Which — I didn’t know what to tell him (laughter).”
“But it’s the right thing to do,” Obama continued, “to provide age-appropriate sex education, science-based sex education in schools.”
This is what passes for mainstream in the Donk party these days? Apparently the MSM thinks so!
Suit to decide workplace ‘hate speech’
The words “natural family,” “marriage” and “union of a man and a woman” can be punished as “hate speech” in government workplaces, according to a lawsuit that is being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
This is another one of those cases that is so far out there that it staggers the imagination to realize how far things have devolved that the concept of marriage and family is under legal attack as “hate speech”. Hopefully the Supremes will uphold some degree of reason here…but…who knows anymore?
Redefining the Past To Shape the Future
If you ever find yourself asking “how did the land of the free and home of the brave lose respect for it’s foundation and become a nation of wimps and losers always in search of government solutions to personal problems?”, you might start here in your search for the answer.
America has been slowly but systematically and certainly redefined to the point that current generations struggle to understand what America is now. They can’t decide if it’s friend or foe, a beacon of light or a symbol of evil. America has lost its collective soul, but not by accident.
After going on and citing specifics on this political rebranding, a cautionary conclusion is reached:
The generations before handed us the greatest nation on earth built upon principles nobody seems to like anymore. A generation that follows will one day look back through history and see that our generations threw it all away.
Then another generation will rediscover the real America that once led the world in every respect and they will build it once again, on the same principles that made it great the first time.
And they will hold us, all of us, in contempt for what we have allowed to happen to the greatest society of free people ever known to mankind.
But what the hell…It’s just politics…right?
This spring the Chief was surprised to discover that he had been volunteered to serve as the sexton for a small country cemetary a few miles from his HQ. This has been an interesting sort of job, and has presented the opportunity to reflect on the circumstances of life, and of course, of its ending.
With Memorial Day at hand, the question arose as to what, if anything could/should be done in recognition of the the 31 vets (that are known) to have their remains in this cemetary. (SMALL cemetery, but definitely still in use.) As a retired Navy vet myself, this was not entirely an academic question, and an inquiry to the VFW led to contact with a post in Sioux Falls that has taken on the task of placing over 3000 flags on vets’ graves in two Sioux Falls cemeteries! They graciously provided us with a few dozen flags, and we at least did the honors of placing the flags with our own vets for the occasion, the first (but definitely not the last!) time that this has been done in an organized way at “our” cemetary.
Among “our” 31 that we know of, there are veterans of the Civil War, WW-I, WW-II, Korea, Viet-nam, as well as Cold War era service. In spite of the relative remoteness of the cemetary, and the declining rural population, it was surprising and gratifying to see that flowers and memorials had been placed on the great majority of the gravesites…in some cases we KNOW that people travelled some distance (at $3.20 per gallon or more) in order to remember and honor their ancestors, whether vets or not.
IMHO, this demonstrates some sort of solid core values that are still alive and well here in flyover country, in spite of the sneers and condescension of the MSM and the so-called elites that they shove down our throats as examples of superiority that usually prove to be scum floating to the surface like something rotting and best avoided if at all possible.
Thank God for those who are still willing to serve and defend what is still the best nation that has existed on this planet, as well as to those who honor and respect the sacrifices and efforts of all of those who have contributed to the building of this Republic.
This is a pretty good analysis…keep in mind that the writer is referring to “classical” liberalism here…not the current “social democratic” iteration of it as practiced by the libDonks, et al.
The founding ideologue of modern Islamism, Syed Qutb, made clear in his writings that at the core of the salafi interpretation of Islam was opposition to the separation of religion and temporal power that resulted in liberalism and democracy. His governing impulse was the fear that the instinct for liberty was so powerful it would spread to and infiltrate the Muslim mind unless it was checked by the most repressive possible form of Islam.
The Big and Little Satans themselves, America and Israel, are proxies for liberalism and modernity. That’s why Islamism says they must be destroyed. Qutb famously went to America and concluded from seeing men and women dancing at a church hop that America was one giant brothel. And much of the bitter hostility to the Jews who started returning to Palestine in the 1920s was because the women wore shorts and were sexually free.
So, where did Qutb go with this?
The Islamist goal is to destroy the virus of freedom and modernity before it infects the Islamic world, and to replace it with Islam. That is the core of the profound threat it poses to the west, a threat mounted through the pincer movement of both terrorism and cultural takeover.
This cultural takeover, or the aim to Islamise the west, was explicitly laid out in a programme of subversion for Europe by the Wahabbi Muslim Brotherhood almost 30 years ago. In 1978, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference sponsored a seminar in London which said Muslim communities in western countries must establish autonomous institutions with help from Muslim states, and lobby the host country to grant Muslims recognition as a separate religious community as a step towards eventual political domination.
In Britain in 1980, a book called ‘The Islamic Movement in the West’ by Khuram Murad advocated an ‘organised struggle to change the existing society into an Islamic society…and make Islam…supreme and dominant especially in the socio-political spheres…’ A Muslim Brotherhood document seized in Switzerland in 2001, known as ‘The Project’, outlined a twelve-point strategy to ‘establish an Islamic government on earth’. And the Brotherhood has now set up an intricate network of bodies across Europe to put all this into action.
There is of course more to the piece than this, and while it is approached from the British perspective (and if you think the US is having problems with this, pray for poor England under siege) it is just as relevant to us.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
Bill Whittle’s latest gem of essay is up today over at Eject! Eject! Eject!
Folks, you are about to be hit with a BIG IDEA.
It’s not entirely my big idea, but I’m willing to hang some tinsel on it and take credit for it.
First, a brief set-up, and then (and I will make an announcement in BOLD CAPS) comes the Big Idea.
Okay, the set-up:
I’ve written a dozen or so major essays since I hung my shingle over this little corner of cyberspace, and received wonderful e-mails about all of them. But two – the last two – have generated a very specific response: more passionate; desperate, even.
The first was Tribes, which basically posited that there were people who relied on themselves and people who relied on the State. The second was Seeing the Unseen, which took a look at conspiracy theories and the mental illness required to believe in ‘chemtrails’ and the 9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB pathology.
Those both generated reams and reams of heartfelt sentiment, and that sentiment was the much the same time and time again.
I thought I was all alone, people said. And I see this sense of despair and resignation spreading all across the web; from individuals in comment sections, or in lonely posts on obscure blogs.
Now here’s what’s interesting: this response is the same, again and again, although the stimulus is different. It might be increasing public irrationality and paranoia, or falling educational standards, or unchecked illegal immigration, or activist judges. Maybe it’s tolerance of crime, or endless lawsuits, or general mean-spiritedness. Perhaps it’s rampant defeatism, cynicism, a lack of common decency, and the sense that courage and honor are dying qualities that time is passing by.
And maybe it’s the dawning realization that our elites in politics, academia and entertainment (which controls our mythology) are leading the charge not to salvation but to the cliffs that seem so obvious to so many common people.
Something seems to be failing, something essential, as if all the nails and glue that hold a house together were dissolving all at once. And many people – perhaps you are one of them – watch all this happening and feel powerless to stop it.
Well, you are not alone.
So many stimuli, and always the same response: has the world gone mad?
What do those stimuli have in common?
HERE COMES THE BIG IDEA.
The Chief cannot urge you too strongly to go check it out – the edification you receive will be your own!
‘Repulsive’ Poland confronts Europe
Nearly 70 years after the invasion of Poland marked the beginning of a global cataclysm, the Central European nation once again finds itself confronting a foe it sees as a threat to Western civilization. While the rest of Europe largely accommodates a rising tide of secularism, many Polish leaders are prepared to fight back with a bold, traditional social agenda they envision not only for their own country but for the continent and the world.
The Chief finds this a surprising but welcome situation.
“The family is the hope for Poland, the hope for Europe, the hope for the entire world,” the 36-year-old leader told the global gathering of more than 3,300 from 75 nations. “… Without the family, there is no nation, there is no continent, there is no civilization, there is nothing.”
Although there is more in the story, that last statement says it all!
The damage to highway overpasses in Oakland produced some views evocative of Salvador Dali’s art, with a roadway seemingly melted and draped flaccidly over another.
The threat of a nightmarish morning commute led many Bay Area residents to use public transportation Monday, one day after a fiery tanker crash caused a heavily trafficked section of freeway to collapse.
The elevated section of highway that carries motorists from the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to a number of freeways was destroyed early Sunday when the heat of a burning gasoline tanker truck weakened part of one overpass, crumpling it onto another.
OK. So…a gasoline tanker crashed and burned (fortunately the driver got away with minor burns) and the heat led to the collapse of highway overpasses. This happened because the burning fuel raised the temperature of the overpasses structural steel (even inside of the concrete!) so much that it weakened and/or melted, allowing the collapse…sort of like what happened to the World Trade Towers UNPROTECTED structural supports after THEY were roasted by burning jet fuel!
Another nail in the rhetorical coffin of the 9-11 conspiracy moonbats like Rosie whatsherface, et al. Don’t worry about them though…this shouldn’t slow them down, since they’ve never been stopped by pesky reality before.
Supreme Court Upholds Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act
In 2000, the Supremes threw out Nebraska’s ban on partial-birth infanticide. Now they affirmed a nation-wide ban. Who says Dubya’s appointments arn’t making a difference?
The Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on a controversial abortion procedure Wednesday, handing abortion opponents the long-awaited victory they expected from a more conservative bench. The Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on a controversial abortion procedure Wednesday, handing abortion opponents the long-awaited victory they expected from a more conservative bench. The 5-4 ruling said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.
This is one guaranteed to drive the feminazi left crazy – but as far as the Chief is concerned this decision marks the end of a hideous practice that never should have been allowed in the first place.
In the same vein:
Are you a Democrat, Republican or Redneck?
Here is a little test that will help you decide. The answer can be found by posing the following question:
You’re walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children.
Suddenly, an Islamic Terrorist with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, praises Allah, raises the knife, and charges at you. You are carrying a Colt M1911 with 7 shot magazine and you are an expert shot. You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family.
What do you do? …………….
Democrat’s reaction:
“Well, that’s not enough information to answer the question! Does the man look poor or oppressed? Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack? Could we run away? What does my wife think? What about the kids?! Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand? What does the law say about this situation? Does the Colt have appropriate safety built into it? Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway, and what kind of message does this send to society and to my children?”
“Is it possible he’d be happy with just killing me? Does he definitely want to kill me, or would he be content just to wound me? If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my family get away while he was stabbing me?”
“Should I call 9-1-1? Why is this street so deserted? We need to raise taxes, have paint and weed day and make this happier, healthier street that would discourage such behavior. This is all so confusing! I need to discuss this with some friends for few days and try to come to a consensus.+
Republican’s reaction: BANG!
And the Redneck’s reaction: BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
(Sound of empty magazine being dropped and spare mag being inserted)
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
(A short period of silence………….)
Daughter: “Nice grouping, Daddy! Were those the Winchester Silver Tips or Remington Hollow Points?”
Son: “Can I shoot the next one Pa?!!”
Wife: “No Honey, you ain’t taking that to the Taxidermist!”
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
The Chief just might be a redneck!
(All of the above was received via e-mail from a correspondent & neighbor. H/T to you Bill!)
The massacre at Virgina Tech is obviously a horrible event that obviously generates a number of thoughts and questions for the Chief, as I’m sure it does also for a whole lot of other people. My thoughts may or may not run n the same direction as yours do, but these are some things that have struck me.
‘Question Mark’ Killer Quietly Seethed With Rage
He apparently had scrawled the words “ISMAIL AX” on the inside of one arm, according to the Chicago Tribune, which may be a reference to the Islamic account of the Biblical sacrifice of Abraham.
A possible Islamic connection? Ismail is the Arabic version of Ishmael – Abraham’s son by Hagar, who Biblically is considered as being the progenitor of the Arab people, which the Arabs themselves believe. The ax part relates to an Islamic version of the Abrahamic sacrifice where an axe was to be used. Also, of COURSE the Moslems can’t give priority of place to Isaac – THEY claim that Ishmael was the commanded sacrifice. Oh well. The Chief, as a Christian, doesn’t buy their version, but that’s neither here nor there…the question remains as to what a KOREAN is doing with at least SOME involvement with the Islamic version of this?
Other items heard reported from various media sources during the course of the day:
item: serial #’s filed off guns. WTF? That’s really weird, since the perp apparently bought the guns legally and was going to be using them himself.
item: VaTech President noted that there really wasn’t a previous domestic involvement between the perp and the initial victims…in that case it would be a wholly random selection of victims – sort of like last month’s Salt Lake City Trolley Square mall shootings (done by a Bosnian Moslem).
item: who were the other guys photographed being taken down by police:
and this one too:
item: It’s probably worth noting that the perp was apparently taking anti-depressant drugs. After Columbine and other incidents of extreme violence with drugged up perps, who can be surprised.
Finally, the real hero is the Lithuanian born holocaust survivor Liviu Librescu who held the door to his classroom closed to give his students a chance to jump out the window and escape while he was shot to death through the door. What to say? I can add nothing to this:
John 15:13 – Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Amen.
Bill Whittle’s latest is out on Eject! Eject! Eject!, and it is definitely in the MUST READ category.
Just a choice taste:
Recently, Rosie O’Donnell said on national television that she believes 9/11 was orchestrated by the US government.
Well, that’s why we went through the steps above. If you believe that the government lied about the moon landing, you can believe they lied about killing JFK. If they lied about JFK, then they can lie about chemtrails. And if they are willing to poison the entire population with aerial spraying, what are a few thousand people in four airliners and a couple of buildings?
Rosie O’ Donnell making such a claim on a major network is a national disgrace. The fact that much of the audience cheered and applauded is nothing less than a national catastrophe.
To her, and to her audience, it is taken as granted that the government is capable of such things. As if “the government” was operated by cyborgs grown in Haliburton vats, rather than by well-meaning and patriotic people that love this country.
“This is the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel,” she said. This is a statement of such pristine and perfect idiocy that it surely must be emblazoned in stone across the entrance to the Physics Imbecile wing of the Moron Museum of Natural History. But mastery of physics and engineering requires some intelligence, some perseverance and some discipline: none of which are in evidence in this buffoon.
Once again, the Chief repeats his humble evaluation of Whittle as being one of the best essayists the Republic has seen since Thomas Paine.
The Chief received this from an e-mail correspondent – he, and I thought it worth passing along:
Why are so many people enamored and hypnotized by the statements made by celebrities? And why do these same folks ignore or fail to seek the wisdom of people who do know what they are talking about?
They are the same kind of people who demand that their…pick one….daycare, restaurant, mechanic, physician, etc be licensed but will accept without question the statements and opinions of Jessica Lange, Rosie O’Donnell, Brad Pitt or George Clooney.
Sure, these people have a right to their opinion but do they really know what they are talking about? I might also ask this; do the four aforementioned celebrities share enough college credits between them to get an associate’s degree from your local community college? I’m just asking for I don’t know.
Let me guess. The folks who listen to celebs know the details of Brittany Spears divorce or the sad facts concerning Anna Nicole Smith’s demise but they can’t find Iraq or, perhaps, their own state on a map. Remaining ignorant is a choice.
Tom Pierett
The Chief concurs.
Sort of reminds me of a comment made by management guru W. Edward Deming: “Learning is not mandatory. But then again, neither is survival.”
TAKE THE TEST
Received from an e-mail correspondent:
Are you a Democrat, Republican or Redneck?
Here is a little test that will help you decide. The answer can be found by posing the following question:
You’re walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children. Suddenly, an Islamic Terrorist with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, praises Allah, raises the knife, and charges at you.
You are carrying a Colt M1911 with 7 shot magazine and you are an expert shot.
You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family.
What do you do? …………….
Democrat’s reaction:
Well, that’s not enough information to answer the question!
Does the man look poor or oppressed?
Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack?
Could we run away?
What does my wife think? What about the kids?!
Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand?
What does the law say about this situation?
Does the Colt have appropriate safety built into it?
Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway, and what kind of message does this send to society and to my children?
Is it possible he’d be happy with just killing me?
Does he definitely want to kill me, or would he be content just to wound me?
If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my family get away while he was stabbing me?
Should I call 9-1-1?
Why is this street so deserted?
We need to raise taxes, have paint and weed day and make this happier, healthier street that would discourage such behavior.
This is all so confusing! I need to debate this with some friends for few days and try to come to a consensus.
Republican’s reaction:
BANG!
And the Redneck’s reaction…………
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
(Sound of empty magazine being dropped and spare mag being inserted)
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
(A short period of silence………….)
Daughter: “Nice grouping, Daddy! Were those the Winchester Silver Tips or Remington Hollow Points?”
Son: “Can I shoot the next one Pa?!!”
Wife: “No Honey, you ain’t taking that to the Taxidermist!”
Rosie O’Donnell is just about uninteresting any more, but sometimes is just so far out in left field that the Chief can’t resist an easy shot.
In this case, whe’s accused the US and UKof fomenting the Persian Gulf hostage taking to gain a casus belli with Iran. Uh, Rosie, we already HAVE that (if only we would use it!) in the Iranian manufacture of explosive devices & weapons exported to undermine Iraq, and the capture of Iranian officers and officials inside Irag training and aiding Islamoterrs inside Iraq.
Just to keep it up, and move into the realm of aluminum foil beanie-wearing, she alos recently jumped on the 9-11 conspiracy bandwagon, based on the usual assortment of lies, half-truths, and just dumb old ignorance of engineering. Watch her comments in the above link, and then check out this and this from Popular Mechanics, that thoroughly and clearly refutes the moonbat theorists. Sorry folks, reality’s capable of out-bitching Rosie, et al anytime.
And building a world where “all structures will be standard sizes.”
Every so often the Chief runs across an example of moonbats coming up with something so bizarre that it takes ones breath away. These gals up in latte-land have gone so far into left field that they’re no longer in the stadium.
Perhaps you’ve heard about the schools that have banned tag. Or dodgeball. Or stories about pigs. If so, you won’t be surprised to hear that the Hilltop Children’s Center in Seattle has banned Legos.
A pair of teachers at the center, which provides afterschool activities for elementary-school kids, recently described their policy in a Rethinking Schools cover story called “Why We Banned Legos.”
It has something to do with “social justice learning.”
In other words, communist indoctrination. This is NOT an exaggeration! It is a simple, factual description.
At Hilltop, however, the teachers strive to make them different. “We recognized that children are political beings, actively shaping their social and political understandings of ownership and economic equity,” write Pelo and Pelojoaquin. “We agreed that we want to take part in shaping the children’s understandings from a perspective of social justice. So we decided to take the Legos out of the classroom.”
The root cause of Hilltop’s Lego problem was that, well, the kids were being kids: There were disputes over “cool pieces,” instances of bigger kids bossing around little ones, and so on. An ordinary person might recognize this as child’s play. But the social theorists at Hilltop saw something else: “The children were building their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys – assumptions that mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society – a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive.”
Wait…there’s more:
The root cause of Hilltop’s Lego problem was that, well, the kids were being kids: There were disputes over “cool pieces,” instances of bigger kids bossing around little ones, and so on. An ordinary person might recognize this as child’s play.
But the social theorists at Hilltop saw something else: “The children were building their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys – assumptions that mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society – a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive. Pelo and Pelojoaquin continue: “As we watched the children build, we became increasingly concerned.”
So they banned the Legos and began their program of re-education. “Our intention was to promote a contrasting set of values: collectivity, collaboration, resource-sharing, and full democratic participation,” they write.
Instead of practicing phonics or memorizing multiplication tables, the children played a special game: “In the game, the children could experience what they’d not been able to acknowledge in Legotown: When people are shut out of participation in the power structure, they are disenfranchised – and angry, discouraged, and hurt. … The rules of the game – which mirrored the rules of our capitalist meritocracy – were a setup for winning and losing. … Our analysis of the game, as teachers, guided our planning for the rest of the investigation into the issues of power, privilege, and authority that spanned the rest of the year.”
The one redeeming feature of this is that this at least is not a government school running on tax dollars. The chilling part is to think that there are parents out there who are either willing to pay for this sort of indoctrination, or, are willing to dump their kids into this with no concern for what is actually happening to them.
The Chief’s not sure which is worse.
Looking on the website of this school indoctrination center the perpetrators of this make no bones about where they’re coming from.
WARNING! NAUSEATING CONTENT!
DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A STRONG STOMACH!
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Iranian official lashes out at Hollywood movie “300” for insulting Persian civilization
This is a curious report for a number of reasons. Firstly, Shiite Moslem Iran is feeling defensive about the depiction of the Zoroastrian ancient Persians in the cinematic cartoon film 300, which centers on the battles of Themopylae in 480 BC.
OK. We DO have Irans President AhmadiNejad Ahm-mad-on-a-jihad we’re dealing with here, so I guess that anything goes in THAT department.
THe other curious thing is that the only place this is being reported is by the ChiCom Xinhua agency reporting through People’s Daily Online of all places.
Rounds vetoes booster seat law
Gov. Mike Rounds vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have required some older children to be in booster seats while riding in vehicles. Rounds said the bill “proposes to criminalize the failure to place children between 5 and 8 weighing less than 80 pounds in a booster seat.”
He said compliance with the law might be nearly impossible in some instances. “Parents with large families and neighbors dropping children off at school come immediately to mind,” Rounds wrote. “I will not force South Dakota citizens to weigh their passengers before deciding whether to transport them to the movies. How can a law enforcement officer enforce this law? Are we going to provide scales to law enforcement to weigh each child before writing a warning ticket? Are we going to require children to carry identification or a birth certificate to prove their age?”
Good for the Gov!