Stamp Out Onion Violence!!!

Des moines Register –A Des Moines man went to jail Wednesday afternoon for allegedly throwing an onion at his wife.The police report begins: “(The victim) states her husband had been drinking and they got into an argument.”James Izzolena, 54, of 3515 Sheridan Ave., was charged with domestic assault causing injury. Police said he became upset with his wife, Nicole Izzolena, 27, and tossed an onion at her, striking her in the back of the head.She told police it made her head hurt. James Izzolena admitted throwing the onion, police said, but he claimed he did not intend to hit her with it. He was being held without bond pending a court appearance today.

Ain’t love grand? Onions? Brings a tear to the eye, as it were.

So let’s work this stuff out. They guy loses whatever income he would have had, had he actually been working. He now has an arrest record. He’ll probably get  $3,000.00 worth of fine. Maybe another $3,000.00 of legal fees. My guess is she’ll be paying for most of it.

She: 27, he: 55ish. Big shock, they’re not getting on well at all times, huh?

Before you start, no, domestic violence is a serious problem. But some cases you just have to look at and say “this doesn’t rise to that level”.

Let me be the first to issue the call:

Let us work together to stamp out this ugly scourge of onion violence.

Good lord, what’s next? Rutabagas?

So, the KosKids love Ahmadinejad.

No secret, this.

But when you see them admit it, and post their love of the man publicly….

I know I’m a Jewish lesbian and he’d probably have me killed. But still, the guy speaks some blunt truths about the Bush Administration that make me swoon…

How much in the way of drugs and/or alcohol must one partake of before one can come to that kind of conclusion? Always assuming of course there’s not a serious case of dain brammage to begin with.

It’s amazing the depths that hate can drive you to, isn’t it? And you thought the liberal didn’t hate anyone…

Talk about going over the edge.As one writer put it, just recently, and frankly I don’t remember who, Bush derangement syndrome, has become the core of leftism. Their hatred defines who they are. It’s their very reason for living and breathing. Of course, there are things that I hate, as well, but I don’t let it obscure my vision of reality ; my ability to perceive it.

The sad part of this, is that when the left finally wakes up to the threat that such people represent, that’s the point at which our liberties are really going to disappear in the name of quashing such people. Their response will make GWB’s response to seem exactly what it is; Balanced and reasonable.

Reynolds:

HOW TO SABOTAGE AHMADINEJAD: Have some scantily-clad coed run up and give him a kiss. Make sure photos are distributed in Iran.

Simply brilliant.

 ANOTHER UPDATE: Okay, this would be better: Dan Riehl suggests a Jewish Lesbian Kos diarist. Plus, her admiration is already on record.

I’d pay to see that one.

Of course, it doesn’t even have to happen, really. We could simply doctor up a photo depicting the event, and publish it. Do you suppose we could get CBS and the the NYT to back us in the venture? Fake but accurate, after all, is news worthy…. and valid, if we’re to take the word of Dan Rather and CBS News.

Oh, I know… their willingness to back such a plan depends on the target of it.

But, then again, that’s my point.

An interesting article from Roger Kimball, today, in the New Criterion.

Here’s the take-away:

Here’s Bagehot from Chapter 2 of Physics and Politics, “The Use of Conflict”:

History is strewn with the wrecks of nations which have gained a little progressiveness at the cost of a great deal of hard manliness, and have thus prepared themselves for destruction as soon as the movements of the world gave a chance for it.

“A little progressiveness at the cost of a great deal of hard manliness,” all of which, says Bagehot, prepares a nation for “destruction” at the first opportunity. Keep that in mind as you contemplate these words of Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University. Explaining that he intends to confront President Ahmadinejad with some “sharp challenges” (e.g., why does he deny the Holocaust? Why has he publicly called for the destruction of Israel?), President Bollinger goes on to deliver this little aria about free speech and “the powers of dialogue and reason.”

I would like to add a few comments on the principles that underlie this event. Columbia, as a community dedicated to learning and scholarship, is committed to confronting ideas—to understand the world as it is and as it might be. To fulfill this mission we must respect and defend the rights of our schools, our deans and our faculty to create programming for academic purposes. Necessarily, on occasion this will bring us into contact with beliefs many, most, or even all of us will find offensive and even odious. We trust our community, including our students, to be fully capable of dealing with these occasions, through the powers of dialogue and reason.I would also like to invoke a major theme in the development of freedom of speech as a central value in our society. It should never be thought that merely to listen to ideas we deplore in any way implies our endorsement of those ideas, or the weakness of our resolve to resist those ideas, or our naiveté about the very real dangers inherent in such ideas. It is a critical premise of freedom of speech that we do not honor the dishonorable when we open the public forum to their voices. To hold otherwise would make vigorous debate impossible.

That such a forum could not take place on a university campus in Iran today sharpens the point of what we do here. To commit oneself to a life—and a civil society—prepared to examine critically all ideas arises from a deep faith in the myriad benefits of a long-term process of meeting bad beliefs with better beliefs and hateful words with wiser words. That faith in freedom has always been and remains today our nation’s most potent weapon against repressive regimes everywhere in the world. This is America at its best.

What can one say? That President Bollinger traduces the idea of “a community dedicated to learning and scholarship”? Yes. That he elides the notion of free speech and the more limited privilege of academic freedom? Yes again. That his incontinent demand that his university provide a forum for all ideas, no matter how toxic, erodes freedom by making it vulnerable to fanaticism? A third time Yes. Powerline’s Scott Johnson got it exactly right when, reflecting on this pathetic congeries of liberal cliches, he wrote that

Columbia and President Bollinger are a disgrace. They welcome to their campus a man who is a ringleader in the seizure of American hostages, a terrorist, the president of a terrorist regime, and the representative of a regime responsible at present for the deaths of American soldiers on the field of battle. Columbia’s prattle about free speech may be a tale told by an idiot, but it signifies something. And President Bollinger is a fool who is not excused from the dishonor he brings to his institution and his fellow citizens by the fact that he doesn’t know what he is doing.

Amen. And it is worth stepping back to ask ourselves why Scott is right and President Bollinger is wrong. Here are some of the reasons: Universities are institutions dedicated to the pursuit and transmission of learning and the furtherance of civilization. They are not circuses for the exhibition of politically repugnant grandstanding. Free inquiry is not a license for moral irresponsibility. At a university, as at every other human institution, freedom can thrive only when it is limited by allegiance to certain positive values–the value of historical truth, for example, or the moral truth that human dignity is worth preserving.

Its far longer than this, and I ask you go and RTWT. I’ll be making reference to this article going forward, as the basis of future articles,on more than just this.

Dawson Hill, Detroit Free Press: 

MACKINAC ISLAND — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney used his Michigan connections to good advantage over the weekend in easily winning a presidential straw poll of registrants to the Michigan Republican Party’s biennial island conference.

Romney, a Michigan native and son of a former governor, pulled in 39% of the vote that was open to delegates to the conference who were also Michigan residents. Arizona U.S. Sen. John McCain, who has been fighting organizational woes in Michigan and elsewhere, was a relatively strong second, with 26.5%.

Momentum, or home field advantage?

Hat tip photo:  ABC News.

Hume, last Friday: 

Liberal columnist Michael Kinsley says Republican indignation over the MoveOn.org ad calling General David Petraeus “General Betray Us” is — in his words — “mock outrage.”Kinsley writes in Time Magazine that the ad can be interpreted as questioning the general’s honesty — not his patriotism. But kinsley says that the negative reaction to the ad has been phony and writes, “The war’s backers are obviously delighted to have this ad from which they can make an issue.”

He adds, “When so many people are clamoring for a chance to swoon that they each have to take a number and when the landscape is so littered with folks lying prostrate and pretending to be dead that it starts to look like the end of a Civil War battle re-enactment, this isn’t spontaneous mass outrage. This is choreography.”

Look, Michael, just because liberals have a history of this nonsense for the last 35 years or so, doesn’t mean everyone does it.  People are genuinely angry over this one.  But do keep on thinking that the whole thing is choreographed….  I think you’re in for a rude awakening come November of 2008.  Your shock will be the gravy on that Republican victory.
 

Addendum: (David L)    The leftards don’t believe the anger is for real, or do they?    Mrs. Clinton apparently puts enough stock in the anger idea that according to Sweetness & Light,  went on Meet the Press and lied about her vote:

SEN. CLINTON:  Absolutely not.  He [General David Petraeus] is a man of great honor and distinction who has served admirably.  I don’t condone anything like that, and I have voted against those who would impugn the patriotism and the service of the people who wear the uniform of our country.  I don’t believe that that should be said about General Petraeus, and I condemn that

As the Clintons take no position without first conducting a poll, it is a safe bet that Mrs. Clinton has her own polling data indicating public anger at the MoveOn.org ad.

Just in case you’ve not gotten the schedule:

MONDAY, SEPT. 24:
What: Ahmadinejad to speak at luncheon at National Press Club by videolink
When: Protesters needed from 11:00-2:00. Come for however long you can.
Where: Washington, DC: National Press Club, 529 14th Street NW
Please note: Attendance inside is limited to NPC members, their guests and accredited media only.
Our protest will be held outside of the NPC Building at the corner of 14th and F Streets NW which is close to the Metro Center metro station.
For More info: Contact Meagan Buren at 202-230-7389 or Brandon Gray at 202-857-6627

MONDAY, SEPT. 24:
What: Rally led by Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Community Relations in cooperation with United Jewish Communities, UJA-Federation of New York and Jewish Council for Public Affairs. Speakers include Debra Burlingame, sister of Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame, III, (Capt., USNR, Ret.), pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11.
When: 12 p.m. (rain or shine)
Where: NYC: Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 2nd Ave. at 47th St.(across the street from the UN)
For more info: Conference of Presidents, 212-318-6111 or [email protected] or the JCRC, 212-983-4800, ext. 161 or [email protected]

MONDAY, SEPT. 24:
What: Rally by students from Columbia and dozens of other organizations.
When: 12:30 – 3 p.m.
Where: NYC: Outside Columbia University at W. 116th St. and Broadway- only people with Columbia student IDs will be allowed on campus. The main protest will happen on Broadway on public space next to the building where Ahmadenijad is speaking, so even non Columbia people can protest at this event.

BBCT: LGF 

So American auto companies have been struggling for these last twenty years, trying to keep things afloat, and usually not succeeding by much.  What does the united auto workers union figure is the answer to that problem?  A strike.

DETROIT — After 20 straight days of negotiations, the United Auto Workers union said it would strike General Motors Corp. Monday morning if a new contract agreement isn’t reached, citing the automaker’s failure to address job security and other concerns.

“We’re shocked and disappointed that General Motors has failed to recognize and appreciate what our membership has contributed during the past four years,” UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in a statement early Monday.

It is said that a man with a hammer thinks every problem is a nail.  Apparently the UAW, only has one tool in its arsenal as well.  But what did I say about the unions are killing America? Do they not understand that their actions are what’s causing companies to look for labor outside the United States?

(Drill the pic for full size)

You’re sitting in CSX’s Frontier Yard, just east of Buffalo at the Sloan town line. This is a popular spot for crews to change. Since crew changes require stopped trains, you can often get very impressive photos. Here, CSX 5386 on the near track is a new unit on it’s first revenue run.  It’s headed east, with a load of auto racks.  It’s an ES44DC, GE’s newest model. Both it, and the unit trailing it, have 4000 horsepower 12 cylinder Diesel engines. That’s the crew, standing behind that Chevy, getting ready to board.

The unit to the rear of the shot, CSX7734 is on what’s called a trailer van train, sometimes known as a piggyback train , and is the second of two GE C40-8W’s. The C40 is GE’s big model previous to the 44DC, and also develops around 4000 horsepower.

You can imagine the rumble of 16000 horsepower.

The crew changed, the train is underway, in the seemingly effortless task of getting back up to speed. The new units make for a colorful display.

Bright sunny days, displays of power most people only dream about… this was quite the day for us.

One rather gets the impression that this is going to be a stormy week.  And I’m not talking about the weather.  So let’s spend a moment together in the quiet before the storm:

• There’s a lot more info coming in on that Israeli raid on Syria over the nuclear installation there, a couple of weeks ago. Dave Schuler has a pretty good roundup of the information along with lots of reax.
• So, now that Rudy Giuliani has spoken in front of the national rifle association, can any of his supporters give us a concise and accurate description of Rudy’s position on the second amendment without lapsing into fits of laughter?
• In reading the back and forth over the invasion of New York by Ahmadinejad, I am once again confronted by the nonsense that is the ‘free speech argument as presented by Columbia… who forbids ROTC on campus who did little to prevent the violent confrontation of a spokesman for the MinuteMen, and so on.  The right to Free speech, as Tom Jefferson and the boys thought of it, was with regards to citizens being able to speak their mind without legal action by the government, preventing it, or punishing such speech.  Free speech had nothing to do with someone from a foreign government supporting genocide, without repercussions from the citizenry…. the latter of which is in reality what Colombia is pushing, here. The purpose for free speech was to allow us to defend ourselves… to fight against tyrants so as to prevent human atrocities, the like of which Ahmadinejad both represents, and urgently requires to achieve his goals… not to sit and politely applaud. that the muckties of Columbia, and their defenders, do not know the difference, suggests that the educational values of Columbia university and others with it went off the rails years ago.  Not only have a broken faith with American values, but they have broken faith with humanity.  Not all is lost; at least some people are exercising their right to free speech. it will be interesting to see what kind of reaction that draws.  To say nothing of educational.
• According to the AP newswire, the Florida democratic party is going to be sticking to that January 29 presidential primary they’ve been fighting over even if it means losing all of its nominating convention delegates.  One wonders what the democrats are going to do now.  They’ve lost the bid to change the voting pattern, and Annoy and awful lot of Floridians in the process.  Will they actually go through the process of denying Florida democrats the right to influence their primary?  Given the age of most of Florida’s democrats, it would appear that part of the outcome of this is going to be that Hillary Clinton will receive a lot less opposition delegate wise man she would have otherwise.
• I see now that MoveOn will be paying the full price for that ad, after all…  Which doesn’t solve the original problem, nor should it get anybody off the hook.

PARIS (AP) — Marcel Marceau, the master of mime who transformed silence into poetry with lithe gestures and pliant facial expressions that spoke to generations of young and old, has died. He was 84.Wearing white face paint, soft shoes and a battered hat topped with a red flower, Marceau breathed new life into an art that dates to ancient Greece. He played out the human comedy through his alter-ego Bip without ever uttering a word.

Offstage, he was famously chatty. “Never get a mime talking. He won’t stop,” he once said.

I am unwillingly reminded of George Carlin’s famous line… one Marceau himself reportedly got a charge out of.

Marcel Marceau died today in Paris.  He had no last words.  However, he did make several gestures.

Then again, Carlin is 70 years old these days.

Because the RSS is fouled up for some reason, I went looking for other RSS possibilities.

I finally stumbled across FeedBurner.

Actually, I had it running on the old site, and putting it up for the new one, kind of fell off the map.  My fault.

Right off the bat, I started noticing some discrepancies in the way Sitemeter counts things.

Feedburner reports 58 hits in the last hour.  Site meter records 38 hits in the last eighteen hours.  Offhand, I’d say the RSS is a hit. But that’s just me.

WEEHAWKEN, N.J. – George Clooney and a companion were injured on Friday when their motorcycle collided with a car on a narrow road across the Hudson River from New York City.

Clooney suffered a broken rib and scrapes while his passenger, Sarah Larson, broke her foot in the 3:30 p.m. collision. The two were treated at Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen and released, Clooney’s spokesman, Stan Rosenfield, said.

“He’s doing fine,” Rosenfield said. “He has a broken rib, it’s very painful and it’ll take a long time to heal.

The idiot.  According to the report, he tried passing a car on the right, that was setting up for a right hand turn.  It’s an illegal move, of course.

From Little Green Footballs:

Sick, sick, sick. Before leaving Iran today, thug-in-chief Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the American people want to hear different views about the world.

You know — antisemitic, Holocaust-denying, Islamic supremacist views. And sadly, he’s not wrong; there will be plenty of suicidally blind morons to idolize him.

True. Then again, Steyn identified the problem for us just the other day:

Why do radical imams seek to convert young Canadian, British and even American men and women in their late teens and twenties? Because they understand that when you raise a generation in the great wobbling blancmange of Deval Patrick-style cultural relativism – nothing is any better or any worse than anything else; if people are “mean and nasty” to us, it’s only because we didn’t sing enough Barney the Dinosaur songs at them – in such a world a certain percentage of its youth will have a great gaping hole where their sense of identity should be. And into that hole you can pour something fierce and primal and implacable.