Adoring fans

Muslim appeasement: Christmas and Halloween cancelled at Illinois schools

Yep, you heard it right. I think when Muslims cancel suicide bombings and the deliberate targeting of civilians, especially children, for murder, then we can consider cutting back on our own traditions. Chicago Sun-Times:

So long, Halloween parade. Farewell, Santa's gift shop.

The holiday traditions are facing elimination in some Oak Lawn schools this year after complaints that the activities are offensive, particularly to Muslim students.

Final decisions on which of the festivities will be axed will fall to the principals at each of Ridgeland School District 122's five schools, Supt. Tom Smyth said.

I have a solution which will make everyone happy. Uh, wait a second. It won't make anyone unhappy, which is the liberal goal here. Instead of Halloween and Christmas decorations, pictures of Blobby can be hung around the schools. He's neutral in color and gender, religion and ideology -- he's the ultimate (and only) inoffensive character in the world!

Farmers being paid not to farm in Europe

Here's an interesting take on what is being described as one of the EU's "oddest rules." BBC:

The European Union is going to get rid of one of its oddest rules, whereby farmers are ordered not to grow anything on part of their land and then paid for not doing their job.

Instead of scrapping it, perhaps the European Union should be thinking of expanding the idea?

Journalists could be paid by the "not word" for not turning in tedious articles, and whole pages could be left blank. In an effort to tackle climate change, car manufacturers could be paid for letting assembly lines run idle as workers watch not cars trundle off them. Politicians, perhaps, could reward their loyal foot soldiers with pints and pub lunches for not canvassing in not-to-be-held general elections.

We in the US have seen strange practices like this for many years. Paying farmers to leave fields empty seems absurd, but there is another side to the coin: part of it is a conservation effort to ensure that quality soil is always available.

The devil is in the details, and when it comes to US ag policy, those details run to hundreds of pages only a lawyer could love. The bills are nearly as labyrinthine as the tax code. Here's an excerpt from the 2002 Farm Bill Commodity Program:

Income support for wheat, feed grains, upland cotton, rice, and oilseeds is provided through 3 programs: direct payments, counter-cyclical payments, and marketing loans. Support for peanuts is changed from a price support program with marketing quotas to a program with marketing loans, counter-cyclical payments, direct payments, and a quota buyout. To the extent possible, the sugar program is to operate as a "no net cost" program. A new dairy income support program is introduced.

That explains the large ag-law industry: farmers need help with a complex system, and the better they are at navigating this system, the more of my money they can get. In the US, farming is not farming. Farmers are part of the federal welfare system -- whether they're being paid not to farm, or getting money for growing specific crops. Here's what I've been paying farmers since 2002, for reasons no one can satisfactorily explain:

Wheat	$0.52/bu
Corn	$0.28/bu
Grain sorghum	$0.35/bu
Barley	$0.24/bu
Oats	$0.024/bu
Upland cotton	$0.0667/lb
Rice	$2.35/cwt
Soybeans	$0.44/bu
Other oilseeds	$0.008/lb

Some farmers are paid to farm some parts of their land, as well as paid not to farm other parts. I am in the wrong business.

I wonder what would happen if all subsidies and "conservation" style payments were stopped. Would there be famine? Very doubtful.

San al-Francisco

Two recent stories out of San Francisco illustrate the huge, liberal problem there.

1. Attempt to halt Blue Angels flight demonstration. The libs are citing safety concerns, but let's get real. They hate the Navy.

San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly's hopes of halting the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels show from performing its aerial acrobatics over the city during Fleet Week crashed today when the board of supervisors failed the resolution.

Supervisors voted down the resolution just before 2:30 p.m. Newly appointed interim Supervisor Carmen Chu, who attended her first meeting today as the representative for District 4, voted against the resolution.

2. Marines barred from filming commercial on streets of San Fran

They're the strong and the proud, but the Marines aren't free to stand on the streets of San Francisco.

The Silent Drill Platoon of the U.S. Marine Corps wasn't allowed to be filmed Sept. 11 on California Street in San Francisco for a segment of its new advertising campaign, a Marine spokesman told FOXNews.com.

If San Franciscans don't want the military, then they should be denied that which the military provides: protection from America's enemies. Let's see how long it takes for radical mullahs to conquer the liberal haven with AK47s.

Maddox slams the iLemmings

I missed this update from July. Check it out. And don't miss my own iPhone video, posted below. It received an entire star from the YouTube community.

An angry coach: the Mike Grundy video

Ahmadinejad speaks at the UN

Iranian "president" Ahmadinejad spoke at the United Nutjobs today. The entire speech can be summed up as equal parts lusting for nukes and religious gibberish.

Reefer Sutherland busted for DUI

Partyman star of "24" gets nailed for drunk driving in Hollywood. The Chicago Tribune has the story. I can't wait for him to announce he has a "disease" and is seeking treatment.

'Snowy plover' getting way too much attention

It amazes me that people will go to such lengths to save a small creature. Will the earth be a lesser place if the 'snowy plover' moves on? San Diego Union-Tribune:

The plan, finalized about six years after it was first proposed, pegged the cost of implementation at $150 million. If it is successful, the western snowy plover could be removed from the Endangered Species Act list by 2047.

Some environmentalists supported the federal announcement but warned that voluntary efforts alone won't save the plover.

I would ask that you re-read the excerpt. This is outrageous! What a complete waste of time, money, and energy. We're talking about a sparrow with a somewhat more eloquent name. Let's just shoot it...

First strike at GM in over 30 years

Toyota is poised to crush American car companies like Brazil nuts at Thanksgiving, and what does the UAW do? They strike because they want better job security. AP:

UAW officials said the 73,000 UAW members who work at about 80 U.S. facilities for the nation's largest automaker didn't strike Monday over what many thought would trip up the talks: A plan to shift the retiree health care burden from the company to the union. They said they also didn't strike over wages.

They said union members walked out because they want GM to promise that future cars and trucks such as the replacement for the Chevrolet Cobalt small car or the still-on-the-drawing board Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric car will be built at U.S. plants, preserving union jobs.

Shoot It&trade

Announcing Shoot It™, a new series by The Shaved Ape. A hummingbird is featured in this first installment. From AP:

Birdwatchers are descending on a rural area near this southern Wisconsin community following the sighting of what is believed to be a green-breasted mango, a type of hummingbird commonly seen in parts of Mexico and Central America.

"It's really just an astonishing occurrence," Chuck Hagner, editor of Birder's World magazine published in Brookfield, said of the bird being spotted this far north.

Along with shooting the "green-breasted mango", Chuck should probably be shot, as well.

Jesse and Al rush to the cameras

The Jena 6 case has drawn protests, and, as usual, the Dynamic Duo of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Count on them to rush to action when cameras are present. These guys redefine "grandstanding".

Will Jesse declare that the Jena 6 case "looks like the hull of a slave ship"? What about the Duke Lacrosse Whore? What about Jesse sleeping around and spawning illegitimate children? Tawana Brawley, anyone? Should I go on?

Jimmy Carter completely gone

Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter's saga is a very sad. It has been painful to watch the long, slow slide.

1. Bad president
2. Bitter, failed president
3. Bitter ex-president
4. Babbling, bitter ex-president who champions America's enemies
5. The peanut has gone down the rabbit hole

From AP:

Speaking at Emory University, Carter, who brokered the 1979 Camp David peace accord between Israel and Egypt, said Israel's superior military power and distance from Iran likely are enough to discourage an actual attack.

Hillarious Clinton calls Dick Cheney 'Darth Vader'

From Drudge, front and center. Story at Politico. I wonder if Hillarious said it with a Southern accent?

Iran warns the west about confrontation

Iranian president A-mad-dinner-jacket always makes me laugh. See this AFP story for a good chuckle.

Sally Field another anti-war lunatic

I saw Field babbling incoherently at the Emmys last night (news clip; I'm not stupid enough to watch something like that). Maybe one more face lift will keep that from happening? She managed to spit out that she's anti-war. Surprise, surprise! She and Cindy Sheehan should get together and try to out-stupid one another.

If LiveLeak's embed code doesn't work properly (video not appearing), click here.

Greenspan opens, shuts piehole

Former Fed chairman Alan Jewspan Greenspan is in the news lately for suffering an acute case of BDS, claiming the Iraq War was for oil. Now he's distancing himself. WaPo:

Greenspan, who was the country's top voice on monetary policy at the time Bush decided to go to war in Iraq, has refrained from extensive public comment on it until now, but he made the striking comment in a new memoir out today that "the Iraq War is largely about oil." In the interview, he clarified that sentence in his 531-page book, saying that while securing global oil supplies was "not the administration's motive," he had presented the White House with the case for why removing Hussein was important for the global economy.

"I was not saying that that's the administration's motive," Greenspan said in an interview Saturday, "I'm just saying that if somebody asked me, 'Are we fortunate in taking out Saddam?' I would say it was essential."

He said that in his discussions with President Bush and Vice President Cheney, "I have never heard them basically say, 'We've got to protect the oil supplies of the world,' but that would have been my motive." Greenspan said that he made his economic argument to White House officials and that one lower-level official, whom he declined to identify, told him, "Well, unfortunately, we can't talk about oil." Asked if he had made his point to Cheney specifically, Greenspan said yes, then added, "I talked to everybody about that."

It kind of makes one wonder why he would write in his book that oil was the motivation for the war (and that's a great justification for armed conflict, by the way). Then we look at what else Greenspan has been saying, and it all comes together. Newsweek:

With the next presidential election imminent, Newsweek asks who he would want to win: "Is one of the choices leaving the office open?" Greenspan says. When asked about his view on Hillary Clinton for president he says, "Very smart. She is probably everything that everybody says about her. She wouldn't be a bad president, but she won't attack the issues which really require coming to grips with during the campaign. The absolute blindness of candidates to the obvious issue of Medicare's problems is just truly discouraging to me," Greenspan says.

Thinking Hillarious Clinton "wouldn't be a bad president" makes me wonder how the US avoided countless recessions over Greenspan's tenure. Luck, I suppose. Let's hope Bernanke turns out to be a better man.

LGF dictionary

Check out the LGF Dictionary. I pulled a few samples (below). Yes, I realize they're not in ABC order.

Arafish

car swarm - A peculiar Palestinian custom of swarming around a car which had recently held Palestinian extremists but which was then blown up by Israel in a targeted killing of the terrorists inside

St. Pancake - Disparaging nickname for Rachel Corrie, a American activist who voluteered to help Palestinian militants in their attacks on Israel; she was killed after being crushed by a Israeli bulldozer while “defending” Palestinian smuggling tunnels. She was subsequently beatified by the extreme left, and in mockery of her new holy status, LGFers dubbed her “St. Pancake,” in reference to the manner of her death.

Aloha Snackbar - Absurdist parody of the Islamic prayer “Allah Ackbar” (meaning “God is greater”).

Zionist hair rays - Magical rays emanating from the hair of attractive Jewish women, with the ability to mesmerize Muslim men and render them sexually enslaved.

Frogistan - Derisive name for France, based on the growing Islamic presence in the country and the seeming passive acquiescence of the French to the likelihood that their nation will eventually have a Muslim majority population.

Magic Kingdom - Saudi Arabia; an ironic reference to Disneyland, which in many ways is the exact opposite of Saudi Arabia, where shari’a law ensures that fun is non-existent

Paleostinian

Euroweenies - Coined by P.J. O’Rourke in the essay titled “Among the Euroweenies” in his book Holidays in Hell, published in 1988.

Hildebeast - Insulting nickname for Hillary Clinton. Coined by talk-show host Neal Boortz during the Clinton administration.

MooreOns - Unthinking acolytes of Michael Moore and MoveOn.org. Coined by Jonah Goldberg in the National Review.

France's newfound backbone

I'm still surprised at France's demonstration of strength and leadership. It has been so long. BBC:

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner says the world should prepare for war over Iran's nuclear programme.

"We have to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war," Mr Kouchner said in an interview on French TV and radio.

Mr Kouchner said negotiations with Iran should continue "right to the end", but an Iranian nuclear weapon would pose "a real danger for the whole world".

Of course Iran can't have nukes. Countries run by radical, insane Muslims won't get the bomb as long as one strong country has a rational foreign policy.

Socialists like to show us through their near total control of the media (Fox News offering the only mainstream look at non-socialist thinking) that all things socialist are good. This means taking the side of anyone or any country standing against capitalism. You've seen this in the media: they're quick to point out the virtues of Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba, just as they're quick to point out one fault after another of our own country. Michael Moore is just the film version of CNN or The New York Times.

Yet, all of the following occurred after the Iraq War began:

1. Right-wing John Howard re-elected in Australia

2. Centrist war supporter Tony Blair re-elected in the UK.

3. War supporter Koizumi re-elected in Japan.

4. Canada, of all countries, elects a right-wing leader.

5. Germany elects a right-wing leader.

6. George Bush re-elected.

This tells me there is a vast difference (not to be confused with vas deferens) between what the media wants us to believe and what we, the people, actually believe.

Darfur and The Shaved Ape crystal ball

The BBC and most other media are informing us that people in 30 countries are participating in rallies to bring attention to the Darfur genocide. I have a prediction, based on past experience with Iraq. Prior to W, Saddam was universally derided as a genocidal madman who had and was determined to develop more weapons of mass destruction. John Kerry, Bubba Clinton, Al Gore, and most other liberal leaders were in lockstep with their conservative counterparts. Saddam was a really bad guy and represented a "grave threat" (John Kerry's words) to the United States of America.

Then...

The moment W waged war to remove the genocidal madman, lefties turned on him, even comparing some of his policies and decisions to that of Hitler (Cluck Schumer and others).

With Darfur we have socialists (liberals and other retarded leftists) saying W and other world leaders aren't doing enough to stop the genocide.

We'll probably end up with a Democrat for president, and though I shudder at the thought of a royal bitch and socialist like Hillarious Clinton for president, she has the best chance. After eight years of redistributing wealth and raising taxes "for the children" and making "investments" in education, we'll have another strong leader (Republican). The Darfur problem will be even worse at that point. The Republican will take action to solve the problem, and lefties will turn on him, comparing him to Hitler.

It's cyclical. To recap: A weak, Democrat president seeks photo-opps and leads by polls and accomplishes little more than looking good for eight years, and perhaps scores a blowjob or a licking administered by an intern, and then an actual leader will take over, and then the little socialists will get angry.

Ted Kennedy considering book

Ted Kennedy might write a book, according to an AP story:

Sen. Edward Kennedy has held preliminary discussions with publishers about writing a book on his career, an adviser to the senator told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Dennis Kucinich chasing the dragon again

Kucinich is the only congressman to vote against a 9/11 resolution acknowledging the attacks and offering sympathies to the families of victims of the atrocity. Here's what he said in a statement, from Fox News:

It is important that Congress wake up to the truth and exercise its obligation under the Constitution to save our nation from being destroyed from the lies that took us into Iraq, the lies that keep us there, the lies that are being used to set the stage for war against Iran and the lies that have undermined our basic civil liberties here at home.

It's not unlike other things he has said:

Spirit merges with matter to sanctify the universe. Matter transcends to return to spirit. The interchangeability of matter and spirit means the starlit magic of the outermost life of our universe becomes the soul-light magic of the innermost life of our self. The energy of the stars becomes us. We become the energy of the stars. Stardust and spirit unite and we begin: One with the universe. Whole and holy. From one source, endless creative energy, bursting forth, kinetic, elemental. We, the earth, air, water and fire-source of nearly fifteen billion years of cosmic spiraling.

News coverage from 9/11

My sister recorded many hours of 9/11 coverage down in San Diego. I have been converting the recordings from tape to MPEG for a while now.

David Rieff and American "hegemony"

David Rieff: "We're doomed."

Rieff has just written for The Los Angeles Times a poor echo of territory more eloquently covered by Chomsky and even Osama bin Laden -- that the United States is an empire and that we're doomed. Even C3PO said it better: "We're doomed." Most of these unrealistic socialist outbursts died away after the initial backlash to the Iraq War began to fade away. Rieff isn't content to tell people we're awful and live in an awful country. He wants to make sure we know it will all be over soon.

He compares the US to the British Empire, which was at its peak in 1900, and the Roman Empire, which faded more than 1500 years ago. I've been laughing at these comparisons since the socialist media, led by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and CNN began pushing them, full time, about four years ago. I'm trying to picture in my mind how many of Rome's conquered provinces were allowed, and even encouraged, to vote for their own leaders, and then Rome backed away to allow total sovereignty. Well, let's see now. Zero.

The U.S. has a long list of removing tyrants, then giving self rule a chance, and then bowing out: Germany, Japan, Korea, Vietnam (even though the commies broke their agreement upon our exit), and now with Afghanistan and Iraq. The Brits didn't invade territories across the globe to remove tyrants and set up self-governing democracies, either.

And I'm trying to remember the last empire to have elected leaders. None come to mind.

If anything, the world should thank their lucky stars that we have absolutely nothing in common with the Roman or British empires.

So why does Rieff compare apples to oranges? Is he an imbecile? No, he's a socialist who, by default, hates his own country. Socialists hate strength and worship weakness, so it's only natural he hates the strongest country in history.

Not surprisingly, Muslims are usually the first to gobble up the irrational "hegemony" nonsense. They believe that the U.S. military presence in the Middle East is some new crusade. They call us "Crusaders". They believe that because their culture is mired in the Dark Ages, everybody else's is, as well. They're conveniently forgetting that we have nukes, and more of them than anybody else, with more reliable and sophisticated delivery platforms. If we were "crusading" against Muslims, the Middle East would be a radiated parking lot.

Rieff also says that China and India will overtake the US:

Americans, who grow up believing in their country's exceptionalism (which in foreign policy terms often seems to mean not believing that the historical constraints that apply to other nations apply to the U.S.), are not predisposed to believe that American predominance could possibly be coming to an end. And yet it seems more like wishful thinking than rational analysis to believe that the United States -- which in the coming decades will certainly have to adapt to a multipolar world in geo-economic terms, as China and India reoccupy the central place in the global economy that they had 500 years ago -- can continue indefinitely to play a hegemonic role.

The Economist quotes John Berry of Bloomberg:

China's economy is growing so fast that estimates of its long-term prowess are bordering on the absurd. After Chinese statisticians recently sharply revised up their estimate of economic output in 2004 ..., some analysts said that in 35 years it would overtake the U.S. economy. No way, no how. ... Even if China's GDP were to grow indefinitely at 11 percent a year -- 9 percent real growth plus 2 percent inflation -- and the U.S. experienced 5.5 percent growth -- 3.5 percent real and 2 percent inflation -- it would take the Chinese 40 years to catch up in terms of nominal GDP. Sustainable nominal GDP growth of 5.5 percent annually is well within the capability of the U.S. Eleven percent growth, about what Chinese authorities expect in 2006, isn't remotely possible in the long run.

Jobs apologizes for obscenely priced iPhone

You mean six hundred dollars, the entry cost for a decent laptop, is too much for a huge cell phone / tiny video player? For some, being with the "in crowd" is the most important thing. Forbes:

They say love means having to never say you're sorry, but if so no one told Steve Jobs. On Thursday Apple's head sent a letter of apology to the iPhone's early adapters, hoping to make them feel a little less jilted after he dropped the price on 2007’s “It-product” from $599 to $399 on Wednesday, a mere two months after its release.

Fred Thompson is in

He's an actor with a trophy wife. What more do we need in a president?

Hillarious Clinton in 1968

What happens when a radical hippie student from 1968 goes on to become a Senator from New York? A radical hippie with a slightly more modern hair style will try to be president. A New York Times story sheds some light on Hillarious Clinton's hippie roots:

As the nation boiled over Vietnam, civil rights and the slayings of two charismatic leaders, Ms. Rodham was completing a sweeping intellectual, political and stylistic shift. She came to Wellesley as an 18-year-old Republican, a copy of Barry Goldwater’s right-wing treatise, “The Conscience of a Conservative,” on the shelf of her freshman dorm room. She would leave as an antiwar Democrat whose public rebuke of a Republican senator in a graduation speech won her notice in Life magazine as a voice for her generation.

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s course was set, in large part, during the supercharged year of 1968. “There was a sense of tremendous change, internationally and here at home which impacted greatly how I thought about things,” Mrs. Clinton said in a telephone interview about that period, which encompassed the second half of her junior and first half of her senior years.

It was a time at once disorienting and clarifying, a period that would reinforce the future senator and presidential candidate’s suspicion of “emotional politics” while stoking her frustration with what she considered the passivity of her classmates.

When a young person shows up at a university as a Republican and quickly turns into an anti-war Democrat, it's a sign of weak character or simply a lost soul.

Politics, Clinton style

A year ago an ABC mini-series, "Path to 9/11" showed the Bubba Clinton administration for what it was -- a PR office, as opposed to people actively engaged in doing the right thing. Anyone doubt that bubba and his bitchy wife were a PR duo rather than leaders? Remember when CNN was waiting on the beach for U.S. troops in Somalia, complete with harsh video lights? That was a Bubba Clinton PR campaign that got our boys killed.

When Path to 9/11 was set to roll, the Clinton political machine went into high gear in an attempt to quash it. Never mind that Americans, and the world, had been treated to countless anti-Bush, anti-Republican shows and movies. Whether it's Law & order, Boston Legal, or Michael Moore's socialist offerings, if it's on a screen, it's probably infused with Bush Derangement Syndrome. Then a single show critical of the Clintons comes along, and they try to kill it. In the end the show did go on, but it was edited to make Bubba look better.

Round 2: the DVD release has mysteriously been held up. If the stoppage is not the doing of Hillary Clinton, I'm the Pope.

Another interesting facet to the Clinton M.O. is their continual alliances with criminals. Mark Rich, anyone? What other administration has sold pardons? Now Hillary Clinton, who was a Cubs fan before she was a Yankees fan (shame on New Yorkers for electing her), is involved with Hsu, a fugitive of 15 years. As of today, Hsu has disappeared again.

A Shaved Ape prediction: If Hillary becomes president, she'll blow pardon Hsu in the Oval Office.

Hillarious Clinton blocking "Path to 9/11"?

"Path to 9/11", the TV miniseries, isn't being released on DVD, and nobody knows exactly why. A Los Angeles Times story sheds some light on it, and it makes Hillarious Clinton look even worse than normal.

With no date for the release, questions are being raised about whether political pressure is behind its current status as a stalled or discarded DVD project. The reasons are murky, but the miniseries' writer, Cyrus Nowrasteh, believes it's crystal clear: Powerful forces are out to protect Bill Clinton's presidential legacy and shield Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) from any potential collateral damage in her bid for the White House.

Nowrasteh, also one of the miniseries' many producers, said he was told by a top executive at ABC Studios that "if Hillary weren't running for president, this wouldn't be a problem."

"Whatever anyone may think about me or this movie, this is a bad precedent, a dangerous precedent, to allow a movie to be buried," added Nowrasteh, who received death threats even before the miniseries was broadcast last September. "Because the next time they'll go after another movie. The Bush administration may go after a movie. The next administration may go after a movie. No matter who it is, they may go after a movie. I think this town needs to stand up."

Even before "The Path to 9/11" aired on ABC late last summer, the docudrama ignited a political firestorm, almost entirely from high-profile Democratic leaders who viewed its account of events leading up to the terrorist attacks as a right-wing hatchet job on the Clinton administration and its efforts to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. Attempts to pressure ABC to cancel the miniseries at the time were unsuccessful, but last-minute network edits were imposed to quell the critical outcry.

New bipolar remedy

An AP headline caught my eye: Scientists test new bipolar remedies. See below.

Female Beefeater guards Tower of Londonistan

According to al-AP, a woman has become one of the guards at the Tower of London. Being a "South Asian", nobody knows who she is.

A woman joins the protectors of the Crown Jewels on Monday as one of the famous Beefeaters at the Tower of London.

John Edwards would make doctor visits mandatory

Field Marshal Edwards

Herr Edwards should throw in the towel. He has about as much chance of being president as I do. His latest noise is about health care. Not only would it be "free", but doctor visits would be mandatory. You can't make this stuff up. Fox News:

"It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care," he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. "If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK."

He noted, for example, that women would be required to have regular mammograms in an effort to find and treat "the first trace of problem." Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, announced earlier this year that her breast cancer had returned and spread.

Forcing people to go to the doctor? This is liberalism with the PR veneer pulled away.

The peace racket

Some sage truths in an LA Times article called The peace racket. This will sound arrogant: I've been saying this for YEARS.

["Prepare for peace"] purports to be wise counsel, a motto for the millennium. In reality, it's wishful thinking that doesn't follow logically from the history of war, the real lesson of which is the one that Sun Tzu and Vegetius taught: Conflict happens, power matters, and it's better to be strong than to be weak. Human history has demonstrated repeatedly that you're safer if your enemies know you'll stand up for yourself than if you're proudly outspoken about your defenselessness or your unwillingness to fight. Yet this truth is denied not only by the Nobel Peace Center film but by the fast-growing, troubling movement that the center symbolizes and promotes.

[...]

Decent people prefer peace to war, life to death, nonviolence to violence. But they also prefer freedom to tyranny -- and the peace studies movement, all too often, promotes a mentality that plays directly into the hands of despots.

Absolutely. The Koreans just vacated Afghanistan in exchange for some hostages. The Taliban have stated openly that they will pursue more kidnapping operations. Such idiots, the Koreans.

And if there was any doubt that the folks who prefer peace to their own goddamned freedom are socialist scum, enjoy these two nuggets of pure, unadulterated idiocy:

As for America's response to terrorism, David Barash and Charles Webel tidily sum up the view of many peace studies professors in "Peace and Conflict Studies," their widely used 2002 textbook: "A peace-oriented perspective condemns not only terrorist attacks but also any violent response to them." How, then, are democracies supposed to respond to aggression? Should we open an instant dialogue? Should we make endless concessions? Should we apologize? Neville Chamberlain's 1938 capitulation to Hitler at Munich taught -- or should have taught -- that appeasement just puts off a final reckoning, giving an enemy time to gain strength. But the foundation of the peace racket's success lies in forgetting this lesson. What its adherents learn is the opposite: If you want to ensure peace, appease tyranny -- and there will be no more war.

[...]

The people running today's peace studies programs at American universities give a good sense of the movement's illiberal inclinations. Brandeis University's peace studies chairman has justified suicide bombings as "ways of inflicting revenge on an enemy that seems unable or unwilling to respond to rational pleas for discussion and justice." The director of Purdue University's program is the author of the book "International Relations in a World of Imperialism and Class Struggle." And the University of Maine's program director believes that "humans have been out of balance for centuries" and that "a unique opportunity of this new century is to engage in the creation of balance and harmony between yin and yang, masculine and feminine energies."

Iranians feverishly enrich uranium

Israel is going to womp these bastards, I guarantee it. They'd be stupid not to. From al-Reuters:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday Iran had met a planned target of installing and running 3,000 atomic centrifuges used in enriching uranium, Iranian news agencies reported.

Iran had said it aimed to have that many centrifuges, which are set up in interlinked networks or "cascades" of 164 machines each, by the end of July. Diplomats in Vienna have said Iran appeared to have fewer than the target of 3,000 operating.

The diplomats have also said Iran's nuclear work appeared to have slowed down during the summer, possibly due to technical glitches or for fear of spurring world powers to pass a third U.N. sanctions resolution. Iran has denied any slowdown.

"We have more than 3,000 centrifuges working and every week a new set is installed," the president was quoted as saying.