Now, It’s India.. But Always, It’s Islam

At some point, someone’s going to figure out that Islam is always at the center of these kind of attacks.

Can we call radical Islam the real enemy, yet, without being pilloried for it?

This isn’t a very Thanksgiving like message.  Alas.  Such is the World in which we live.

Memo to Barack Obama, a/k/a the One. a/k/a messiah, a/k/a BO, the the global terror is still being fought.   Fight it, or die of it.   Ignoring it, ala B.J. Clinton, will not make the jadists go away, Allah Pundit, Hot Air.    There are over a hundred dead in India and the fighting continues.

BitsBlog system upgrade to WordPress v2.6.5 is complete.

No errors, no problems apparent.

Just a few minor bugfixes in this upgrade, and a few code changes for security at the Linux level. Since this blog runs on a Windows server, you shouldn’t notice any difference.

Addendum: (Bit): Looks like the MCE editor I installed a week or so back was causing problems for some folks.  Apparently when you opened a single post, and themn moved away, it was asking if you really want to do that.  Apparently the code combo figured you were there only to leave a comment. It’s been removed, for now.

Addendum II: (Bit):

Did some further cleanup today.

• Narrowed the sidebars a little so as to get the whole thing into a 1024 screen a little more cleanly.
• Changed out the New Times Roam font to Ariel/Helvetica, which I think is a little cleaner. I’m a little non-plussed at the justification that produces,but one thing at a time. Let me know what you think of this font vs the old one. Does it help you read more easily?
• Added a UTF-8 filter, which should get rid of most of those stupid blocks when there’s supposed to be quotes there.
• Installed  IntenseDebate software, which supposedly will increase cross-thread commenting. I’ve not seen any change yet, but I’ll give it a few days to catch up.
• Restarted the tagging software, after fixing a few bugs in it.
• Database Cleanup, again. I’ve got a leak somewhere. No biggie, but it’s just a knot I have to untie.
• Dumped MCE editor altogether after playing with it for a few hours in the background. It’s not working for us here. Conflict with the theme, looks like. I’m working on an alternatve to MCE. Meanwhile, we’re back to the editor that came with theme. A little less than we used to have, on the gold theme, but not bad, for now.

I know all of this is ‘inside baseball’ stuff. But what the heck; I’m making an effort to let folks know what’s going on in the background here, because there’s been a lot of changes. It’s a bit less of a shock when you see the new looks I’m throwing at you, if you know what I’m doing. And anyway, you guys are as likely to see problems resulting from these changes as I am. If you have problems, tell me in feedback. Thanks.

Britt Hume a couple nights ago:

A traditional Thanksgiving meal between two elementary schools in Claremont, California, has parents in an uproar over costumes.
The kindergarteners have long celebrated the holiday by dressing up as pilgrims and Native Americans and taking turns visiting the other school to share in a holiday feast, but parents this year are divided over what the costumes represent and whether they should be allowed at all.

Michelle Raheja, whose daughter is a kindergarten student, wrote to her teacher, “It’s demeaning. I’m sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis) or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation’s history… There is nothing to be served by dressing up as a racist stereotype.”

The Los Angeles Times reports after a school board meeting last week, officials decided to hold the meal without costumes. That decision angered the parents who supported the original event.
Mother Dena Murphy said of Raheja, “She’s not going to tell us what we can and cannot wear. We’re tired of [district officials] cowing down to people. It’s not right.”

Well, just so. Kids have been dressing up and taking part in Thanksgiving plays, since the Civil war. It’s my view we risk losing ourselves in all this sensitivity. I can’t help but wonder if it isn’t the case that at least some of the noise we hear on days like this, isn’t aimed at exactly that.  I mean, how much more dispiriting a message can we send our kids than our own culture and history isn’t worth a damn? Welcome to government schools.

Ah, yes… Government schools. Always a battleground anymore, over exactly this. The comparisons Raheja draws are incredible on their face, but so too is the overall position being taken.  It does, however have the action of prying us from our American heritage. That always seems the goal of such actions, doesn’t it? And the teachers and administrators seem to be willing participants in such battles… on the side opposite of American values.

Sometime ago I read a quote from an educator who later went on to political life, whose name I can’t recall at the moment. If any of you can remember the quote I would appreciate passing it along in the comments. But paraphrasing, he said the intent of education was to get students to come out different than their parents. While there may be positive aspects involved with this, I have come to regard this as particularly ominous, given that at least part of the task the quote assigns educators, is to alter the culture, by teaching the students values which their parents do not share. You can certainly understand, therefore, why so many consider Catholic and other religious-based schools to run afoul of their vision of what Education is for; As I’ve said these tend to teach the cultural values which have been handed down generation by generation.

As a result of decades of this brand of “education’, we’ve become sensitive to the point of active denial of our own heritage. Our own story isn’t known to our kids… and the bit Hume speaks of, proves that… and it also shows us the narrative that IS being pushed… that the US is the enemy of everyone.

Because of that long standing effort to demoralize the United states…(in every meaning of that phrase)…  perhaps even some of you are unaware of the origins of this day being set aside as a national day of Thanksgiving. Let’s examine the day’s history and historical meaning, shall we?

Let’s start with the fact that Ol’ Ben Franklin wanted to make the Turkey the national bird, thinking the Eagle a bird of Bad moral character, a rank coward.

‘course now, the turkey Ben Franklin knew was brightly plumed, and a rather cunning bird… and not today’s bird, so darned fat he couldn’t fly… such a creature would have never made it in a world of predetors.  So, had Ben had his way, the turkey would be in the endangered species list, and we’d all be eating roast Eagle, with all the trimmings, I suppose.

Seriously, though… some of you wonder who we’re thanking, and for what. A look back will answer these questions, and possibly give you a new perspective on things.

Many of you, I’m sure don’t know that Thomas Jefferson wasn’t interested in a national day of Thanksgiving, apparently being conflicted about who we were to thank. However, some more open minded people prevailed. Like George Washington, for example… who said in part, in his Thanksgiving Day Proclamation;

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and affign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of thefe States to the fervice of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our fincere and humble thanksfor His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the fignal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpofitions of His providence in the courfe and conclufion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have fince enjoyed;- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to eftablish Conftitutions of government for our fafety and happinefs, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;- for the civil and religious libertywith which we are bleffed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffufing useful knowledge;- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleafed to confer upon us.

In 1863, Lincoln had cause to be thankful, as well.

By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the wastethat has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

Of course Thanksgiving in it’s current context would be eventually declared unconstitutional, if we allow the courts to run things. the bit that Hume speaks of is exemplary of how that course is run.  And perhaps that’s something we ought to remember today, as well.. and be thankful that they’ve not gotten that kind of power from us, yet. That, I am certainly thankful for. (May they NEVER have such power!) If original intent counts for anything in the realm of the Constitution, and I think it does, these proclamations should end the argument about claims of separation of church and state.. and the push toward the removal of the one we should be thankful to, today.

Johnathan Rothenburg said a few years ago, aptly,

While we can and should have debates within the political arena as to the correct role that religion should play in contemporary American society, that debate should be settled democratically by voters, not capriciously by judges. Liberals have often enjoyed success in the courts when they have failed at the ballot box, such as with broad interpretations of the Establishment Clause, these precedents set by our greatest Presidents demonstrate that America’s cultural underpinnings were never based on atheism.

Quite correct.

Well, that touches on the historical and cultural background.  But there’s a more personal meaning as well. I’m going to tell you to have yourself a good Thanksgiving.  But what do I mean when I say that?

Look, here it is; even with everything going on, today, we have a lot to be thankful for. Myself, for my family, that I have a fairly good job, and so on. Worth celebrating, every one of them.

 Please…. Pay attention to those around the table with you this day. Look them in the eye. Let them know.  Give thanks for them while you have them. Consider that no relationship is forever, since we are all mortal.

Put aside what petty differences you have with these special people in your life, for special they are. Alas!, that many of us find out how special they were only after they are gone from us.  I think there’s no pain deeper than that belated understanding. Celebrate those relationships today and celebrate that whatever else happens, you are together, on this day.

 Also think about the fact that the small mountain of food on your table, today, is possible because we are still a blessed and semi-free nation. Such feasting is possible only in nations that are free.

So, think about those in uniform serving these United States to ensure we ARE free to the degree we are. If you can’t do something special for them,   pray for them, anyway. If you’re not a religious type, think good thoughts about them, karma counts too.  If you are traveling this weekend, through airports or whatever, and you see someone in uniform, thank them for their service. It’ll make their day, trust me. If you see a group of uniforms, obviously traveling together, well…. Billy Beck told us of an experience he had recently…

I happened to spend a few minutes in the atrium of Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport. (Oh wait… it’s now “Hartsfield-Race-Grifter-Maynard-Jackson International Airport”. I almost forgot.) Sitting there, I observed a line of troops in desert camo, standing two-abreast in the outlet of a corridor into the atrium space. On a signal, they took up their gear and began to move out, in column. They made their way through the atrium, and the whole place — perhaps three hundred people (it was early) — stood up as one, rendering a thunderous ovation for the whole time that the troops were in sight.

Lamed by the spectacle, I couldn’t move to get out my camera. I wish I had, though. It was terrific.

So, you get into that situation, stand up and bang your hands together. You’ll be amazed how many others join in, and at the smiles of the uniformed. It’s a feeling you won’t soon forget.

Pay heed today to the fact that freedoms unguarded do not abide forever, and that with the kind of business Hume talks about,  and what we’ve seen of late, the last year or two, those freedoms may not outlast us, and as with family, many of us find out how special they were only after they are gone from us.

In looking over this post I see I sound a bit more cautionary than I have in years past.  Perhaps it’s advancing age, perhaps it’s the political climate, perhaps it just a better understanding of all this, perhaps it’s a combination of all of them, I don’t know.  But I’ve never held back from you what I was thinking before and I’m not about to start at this late date.

Again, have a good Thanksgiving, today.

A happy Birthday to Billy Beck. Have a good one today, man… and talk to Priss about the present we got you…

The one on the vision thing:

“Understand where the vision for change comes from, first and foremost,” he told reporters at his third press conference in as many days. “It comes from me. That’s my job, is to provide a vision in terms of where we are going, and to make sure, then, that my team is implementing.”

Via by Carrie Dann, MSNBC.

You know, I bet that Ike, Dwight David Eisenhower, didn’t come up for  a single idea for D-Day.  He was just responsible for the largest military invasion in history.   Meanwhile, Barack Obama claims to the the vision, while staffing his adminstration with recycled Clinton adminstration hacks and trying to recycle the failed economic theories of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

BO claims to have vision.  It would be much better if he actually had a clue.

:

Welcome dear reader tot he pre-Thanksgiving version of the Nightly Ramble… the most intense nightly read on the sphere.

• First, some disturbing news about Barbara Bush, who is in the hospital. Prayers and good thoughts her way.
• We’re being told that for the first time, there is actually a decline in retail spending online.  There’s a lot of folks who will attribute this to the overall economic downturn, but I’ll tell ya… Myself, I can’t help but think the real cause, and in turn part of the reason for the downturn is that a lot of states are taking taxes on such sales, now.
• I dumped Memeorandum the other night for non-reciprocation. They’ve not thrown a link my way in a year.  Now we see Technorati having problems. Frankly, their online performance has been less than stellar even without the cuts. With them? Meh….
• David remarked the other day about Charlie Rangle and his tax problems.  There’s news out this morning that he paid Lanny Davis a six figure sum for help with his ethics troubles. Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to pay the freakin’ taxes?
• Glenn makes note of a story up on Popular Mechanics, about the ten cars that damaged GM’s reputation. Look close and you’ll see that most of the vehicles on that list are hurried responses to fuel shortages brought on by decades of a suicidal ‘no domestic drilling’ policy. Add to that issue, huge union labor costs and unreasonable federal and state regulations and it’s a flippin’ wonder GM turned out anything useful at all. That thought is furthered by the experiences of our domestic automakers in  other countires. Ford in Brazil for example, as Boortz points out this morning.  I’ll stick with my Rainier, thanks. Solid as hell… ladder frame, reasonable MPG (Mid 20’s) great power, hauls my butt and my trailer and doesn’t endager me and mine doing it. That GMT360 platform that my Rainer, the Trailblazer, Envoy etc is based on, I regard as proof positive that GM, when not trying to respond to unreasonable government action, does just fine. The over-regulation (Inculding legal support of union thuggery) and fuel problems… all imposed by liberals… are why our domestic auto makers are in trouble just now.  Guess which way Obama will be going on all this?  So, why are we dumping money into GM again? The Democrats, Obama included, are just going to kill it off with their nonsense anyway. Better to get it done now, rather than later.
• Oil’s below $51, if you’re keeping track.  I’m going to make a prediction to you, and it’s one I’ve made before… When Obama gets sworn in, and some of the energy policy starts taking hold, the prices will go up again.
• A couple things about the sign to the  right. Of course right off the bat, there is no such office. Secondly, remember that presidential looking seal that Obama trotted out during the election?  Yes, the one to the right of the two. Clearly designed by the same people, and likley on the same computer. Designed by someone who understands that the way to a leftists heart is overt signs of authority. It’s all showmanship and symbolism.  As embarrasing as this show of ego gets, you’d have figured the idea of waving these around would have gone away after the reaction he got the first time.  That didn’t happen, though and I wonder if he’s not showing us a bit of his own mental makeup, unwittingly.  Admittedly, running for any public office, or writing a blog, for that matter, requires a certain level of ego, but Obama here apparently is rasing that to new levels. This does not bode well, if he’s that self-important going in.
• Bruce McQuain makes note of a Detroit Free Press column calling for Nancy Pelosi to Impeech Bush… again.
  

  The far left’s wet dream about impeaching Bush is slipping away for good and they’re pretty desperate to find any reason, no matter how loony, to urge Congressional leaders to salve their hate of Bush.What in the world are they going to do with themselves when he’s gone?

  Well, yeah, that’s the thing, isn’t it? I’ve been saying a long time that the vast majority of Obama supporters do not base their support in fact, but rather in hope and emotion. That’s why they were unswayed by mere fact.  Again, we quote Stacy McCain;

  Such irrational expectations are inevitably followed by disillusionment. No prediction of what the next four years might bring is safer than this: The yawning gap between Hope and reality will produce a bumper crop of ex-Democrats.
  …
  Already, their disillusionment is beginning, the Internet rumbling with discontent as Obama staffs his administration with Washington insiders, Clinton cronies and even, perhaps, Hillary Clinton herself. Many more will be disheartened to discover that there is no magic in Obama’s economic plan, a patchwork of warmed-over Keynesian “pump-priming” claptrap as stale as the memory of Hubert Humphrey.

  So, the answer to Bruce’s question is simple; What will they do with themselves? They’re going to turn on themselves like a pack of rabid sled dogs, that’s what.

•  Another thing that won’t make the Nutroots too happy is Robert Gates will remain as Secratary of Defense. Obama apparently understands this, if nothing else;  that Democrats can’t run the military.

Have a good Holiday tommrow; The Nightly Ramble will return on Friday.

We are thinking heavily here about how to present a systematic approach to understanding what we call “Conservatism”.  Just this week, a fellow Iowa blogger Albert Bregar penned his thoughts.

Albert provides an excellent start with a view to how many of us think about defining the way conservatives see the world today (okay, such a view would include “Ronald Reagan came back for more”).  We will certainly start looking around blogdom and start collecting a list of such statements as “Smaller Government” and build them into a resource.

But in stating the conservative view of today’s world, we do limit ourselves to more of a statement of “how does conservative thinking apply to today’s issues”.  What I hope we may eventually find is more of a basis for conservative thought.  It’s great to say we think market disciplines should rule the economy, and smaller government is the best government, but why do we say those things?  Hopefully not because Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh said so.  Rather because we can reach back to a set of abstract ideas (we’ve called them “principles”, as has Fred Thompson) that provides more of a timeless view to base our conservative policies upon.

We will be seeking such principles as well.   Since Fred took down the page where he had them displayed at his campaign web site, I’m not sure if he is restricting access to the content or wants to start over.  So instead of actually using his to start with, let us try to build our own from scratch.

And you can help.

Take a particular policy position, and try to establish why it is correct in absence of the circumstance… in other words, why is it right?  Or, we can also just begin identifying such principles as they seem to be meaningful.  Go ahead and try, and leave one (or more) as a comment.

For example, a principle might be stated as “The assets and obligations of a country are owned by and are the responsibility of the people of that country”.  Policies tied to such a principle would include how decisions are made about spending and debt, such as how much money the country will borrow to accomplish what it wants to do.  Others might include open access to national parks, taxation, and decisions about how to spend money and how to care for assets.  And accountability.

To Be Continued…

(Cross Posted from The Conservative Reader)

Addendum:(Bit): This post is one result of a conversation Art and I have been having over a  period of weeks.  Both of us have expressed the idea that the biggest reason for the recent loss at the polls is not because the Republicans have gone too far right, but rather, too far left, in their definiton of what “Conservative” is.

For my own part, I would add that a lot of that loss is also surrounding the attempt on the part of some to split fiscal conservatism from cultural conservatism.  As Art says, this will be continued.

But as Art says; Write up your thoughts on these matters. Send them along to [email protected], and I’ll make sure they get posted/linked / what have you.

Update (Art): Added link.

I’ve said for years tickets are not about making safe the public, they’re about making money for the state. There’s never been more solid proof than what is going on in NYC just now… per WCBS:

You may have begun to notice more traffic tickets being written. And you may have guessed — correctly — that it has to do with getting New York City more money. Well, brace yourselves, the city is putting 200 more ticket-writing traffic agents to work.

The city’s latest move to close the budget gap is annoying New Yorkers to no end. Soon, you may not be able to avoid the police no matter what you do. Approximately 100 of the agents will be in Manhattan; the other 100 will be spread out across the other boroughs.

At what point do Americans say “Enough”?

Decided to share some photography my older boy put together. He’s becoming rather good at this kind of thing. As usual, drill the pic twice to get full size.

This pic is taken at one of our favorite railfanning spots, just following a rainstorm. We’re at Sanford Road, Chruchville, at sunset. If you look close, you can see a train approaching.

Here’s another, as the train passes us.

And, another

And finally, the train gets by us, headed east.

As the train passed, and we looked after it, Matt noticed the odd sun pattern had mixed with the rain to produce a rather striking rainbow .

Men are you up to Reverend Ed Young’s challenge, John Kelso, Statesman:

All I’ve got to say is praise Jesus.

The Rev. Ed Young of the Fellowship Church in the Dallas suburb of Grapevine says he’ll challenge the married members of his flock to have sex seven days in a row . He plans to deliver this message in his Sunday sermon, while sitting on a bed. The start-up date for this suggested activity is Sunday. So not only are they not resting on the seventh day at Fellowship Church, it’s ‘Gentlemen, start your engines’ on the seventh day. Or, as they say, ‘On your mark, get set, go.

Meanwhile back in Madison, Professor Althouse seems less that thrilled:

“Today we’re beginning this sexperiment, seven days of sex.”

Ugh! What is creepier than religious leaders ordering their followers to have sex?

It would seem to the LSM would have been more receptive of the Reverend Young’s message if he had but called for seven days of sex from, unmarried couples, underaged couples, same sex couples, or illegal aliens.   Some how  I don’t think the media accepts the idea of married couples having sexual relations, not at least with each other.   Mr. and Mrs. Clinton could not be reached for comment.

Addendum and Bump:

Fairness compels to to provide an Double X perspective of the good Reverend’s call.    Good taste prevents me from actually providing any quotes.   In any case if you are legally an adult in your particular state and can handle salty language, go read Jen’s comments.

Jen’s view of use us XY types is not particularly flattering, but I believe we can handle it.

Welcome dear reader to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere BitsBlog’s Nightly Ramble.

Only one more shopping day until Black Friday. Good gosh, it’s November, already? I must be getting old; this stuff is going faster than it used to.

• Congrats to fellow BitsBlogger YetAnotherJohn for his first place finish at this week’s caption contest at OTB, where I finished (gasp!) second. I’ll get you for this, John.. and your little dog, too.
• Ann Coulter’s got a new book. No, I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m sure I will.
• Those Russian warships as I mentioned yesterday, are now off the coast of  Venezuela. You can imagine the WH says it’s watching things closely down there. But, as you may imagine, there’s not a great deal we can do about anything  but make some noise. After all, in the Jimmy Carter sense they  have had a free and fair election, right?
• Speaking of which, I see one of Joe Biden’s lackeys is now taking his Senate seat. I ask again, rhetorically… this constitutes change, how, again?
• Last night, I remarked about the number of peple bitching about the banks being bailed out, spending promotional money on sports venues. The obvious complaint involves use of tax money for such matters. As I said last night, tax money being used to build and support sports venues?  This is new? Well, tell you what… How about Citibank and others paying Bill Clinton 2.1 million  a pop to come and grace them with his red nose? Why does nobody complain about that?  You know why.
• I’ve not linked EjectEjectEject in quite a while. Here’s a cure for that one.
  

  Perhaps, in future editions of the … (Anti-Harrassment) …handbook, we can add another victim group to the protected category: rational adults. Perhaps I might contribute a chapter to this sensitivity training. Something like:”The rational adult is a small and shrinking minority in the workplace. His cultural heritage – which is just as valuable as anyone else’s! – has taught him that “personal responsibility” means he has a right to feel insulted, offended and harassed when being lectured on things that he did not do, nor would ever contemplate doing. In this ancient and primitive culture, a person’s “honor” and “integrity” are relied upon to govern behavior. If such a person unknowingly gives insult, they will “apologize.” According to their tribal ethics, people who intentionally harm, insult or harass others deserve to be fired on the spot.”

  Glenn notes the same link, and asks, innocently… (Well, OK, perhaps not so innocently)

  If sexual harassment training makes men feel uncomfortable on account of their sex, isn’t it, you know, creating a hostile environment?

  You know, Glenn, it’s common sense questions like that that will isloate you in the higher education environment you’re in. I wonder, how have you managed to last as long as you have?

• Along those same lines…. At some point, someone’s going to figure out that government is not the proper arbitor of human rights, at which point entire swaths of former government employees will be asking “Do you want fries with that?”.   See, here’s the real probem. When government gets involved with “protecting” human rights, one is forced by logic to answer the question, what human rights ARE… which is a question even our founding fathers couldn’t answer with any granularity. Then, based on that, enacting laws accordingly.  And laws of course,  are, by their very nature,  limits.  The founders decided that government wasnt going to be able to protect our rights.  In fact they decided, rightly, that government was the problem where rights are concerned… so they wrote the constitution to protect us from government which is why a government run commission on rights is about as screwy as a football bat. In the end the problem with the HRC is that by defining rights, we limit them. And isn’t defining and limiting rights what the Harrassment handbook is all about, as well?
• Heh… the guy who is about to be the EU presdient, demonstrates he has a firm grip on reality, publicaly calling AlGore an ‘Apostle of Arrogance’… now if only we had people here in the states with that kind of stones.
• You may recall, Donna has a Ford Fusion. We LOVE the car. Well, she likes it; I love it. If I didn’t pull the 5500lb camper with my Rainier, every other weekend in summer, I’d own one. Seriously.. it’s that good. The engine in this thing (It’s the V6) seriously out punches it’s weight, and the performance of the rest of the car… handling, brakes and so on are like to what we get with the engine. Fun? OMG… what a rush when you punch that thing. I’d like to see the torque curve on the thing, though. I’ll bet that between 4000 and 6000 rpm it goes straight up… it’s like a turbo coming on, with Nitrous added. The power rush in this thing is Volcanic, to say the least. I’ve driven quicker cars, more powerful, but I’ve never seen one that so seriously shocks the driver, in reminding them this is no mere econobox.  If the new Fusion Hybrid’s performance isn’t much dimmed by the different drive train, (And they claim the performance is comparable)  then this thing will be a real winner for Ford.  Think on this; They’re claiming 39mpg city. For a full-sizer? Sweet. Assuming the UAW doesn’t muck it up, we’ll see a lot of these soon.
• Want proof that having robes doesn’t prove you’re not a whack-job? Here you are.
• President Bush, meanwhile, has pardoned fourteen people including druggies and tax evaders. But notably absent in that list are the two border patrol agents that should ahve been pardoned before the echo died. I will forever consider that a black mark on Bush’s record, and indicative of less than above board priorities that these two brave men who were charged with protecting our borders are still in jail. Not that I expect Obama to make this right, mind you.
• I asked a while ago why nobody was celebrating the removal of former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Maybe it’s because everyone figured the new guy would be just as bad.
• Hasn’t anyone figured out the Democrat connection to Citibank, yet? St Robert Of Clinton, indeed.
• I see the artist formerly known as “The Artist formerly known as Prince” is denying reports of anti-homosexual comments.  Looks like someone’s trying tocreate controversy again.  All that is bizzare enough, but I suppose what really confuses them is all that purple.
• Hey, Neal, I’ve got news for you… you should pardon the pun… the reason most people consider opinion pages as a viable main source of news? Because they’ve figured out that the usual news sources are nothing but opinion pages and proapaganda sheets anyway.
• It occurrs to me that with Barry O as Presdient, there’s but one safe job in the country… the guy in charge of Barry’s teleprompter.
• Congrats to the Jawas for knocking off yet another Jihadi site. Good freind Bluto fills in the blanks, here.

Go tell the Spartans Marines,  Cpl. James M. Mercure, Marine Corps News: 

FARAH PROVINCE, Afghanistan — In the city of Shewan, approximately 250 insurgents ambushed 30 Marines and paid a heavy price for it.

The Few, the Proud, the Marines, the badass.   Fifty plus insurgents dead.   No Marine seriously hurt.  Good job.

Hat tip:  Ace.

One of the updates I did last night, should have been simple enough… the Widget Cache code got updated by it’s author. Apparently, that update caused some strange interactions with the database. I’ve disabled it until I figure out what’s going on. Blog seems to be working, now.

Slap on the back to DavidL who caught the error.

Is Barack Obaam(BO) planning an economic stimulus package or just of pay-off to campaign donors?   From Julie Hirschfield Davis, Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats and President-elect Barack Obama are laying the groundwork for quick enactment in January of a giant, two-year economic rescue package that will total about a half-trillion dollars.

[…]

Some senior Democratic lawmakers put the cost of the package as high as $700 billion, a figure Obama’s team calls premature and several Democratic aides said was unlikely. One top Democratic congressional official, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks on the economic rescue measure are ongoing, said it will probably cost between $400 billion and $500 billion over two years.

[…]

“If you’re going to do something that is big and long-run, like a major infrastructure effort that lasts into the future, then you need to offset it some way — either with tax increases or other kinds of spending cuts,”[Alice M.] Rivlin said.

So if in order to spend a so-called stimulus dollar on one hand you have either have an offset dollar, speinding cut or tax increase, where is the new money?   Where is the economic growth?   In short how is almost a trillion dollare spending plan even qualify as an economic stimulus?

This not a stimulus plan.  This just more BS from BO.

Hat tip photo:  Free Royalty Images.